Death Is Not An Escape
by ZombieGuy96
Summary: Four survivors find themselves thrust into the entity's cruel world, forced to survive trial after trial, the four of them will learn how to trust each other and work together to overcome other murderous survivors, the killers themselves while making more friends along the way and figuring out a way to truly escape the realm, where death is not an escape.
1. Welcome To Hell

Meg Thomas felt herself blink, becoming aware of the scent of damp grass that was prevalent in her nostrils, she groaned to herself and tried to remember what she had been doing last, but the only thing that came to mind was her daily morning run through the woods at the back of her house. Nothing eventful, nor exciting had happened from what she could recall, so how was she here now?

She felt the blades of grass between her fingers and became aware that she was face down on the ground, she concluded that she must have slipped on a loose tree root and had knocked herself out. She let this fact set in, her mother would be worried if she was gone for too long. So with a determined grunt, she got to her feet and felt herself blink again.

This wasn't the woods she had been running in.

There were trees for sure, but they looked old and dried out, sparsely spread out among patches of yellowing grass, the soil a nauseating black, which matched the starless sky stretched out over her head, the moon looked unusually bright and glaring in this strange place. Meg did a double take and craned her neck to get a three sixty view of where she was located, to see if she could make out a familiar landmark.

Nothing, other than a brick wall behind her which stretched out as far as she could see on either side, a series of gothic spikes adorning it's tops and in front of her a derelict building, with a series of jagged broken windows and crimson bricks, this building screamed ominous at her, from it's basic appearance, to the fact it was seemingly moaning due to the faint sounds of the wind rattling it's foundations and loose contents.

"Where the hell am I?" she inquired of herself.

There was no answer, other than the continued moaning of the building in front of her.

Deciding she must have taken a strange detour in her jogging journey, she avoided the building, as if she was a fly being repelled by insect repellent she found herself steering to the brick wall behind her.

Here, she was avoiding attention somehow, it felt like something was here with her, something ominous that she couldn't explain, something that made goosebumps explode all over her skin and make the back of her neck prickle as if eyes were boring into it.

Without saying a word she proceeded onwards.

As she did, more objects entered her line of vision, solid structures that probably once belonged to the building, but were now mere remnants of it, being loose piles of bricks, some with empty window shaped holes still ingrained into them, random piles of wood would crop up. But despite these features, she couldn't find what she was looking for, that being some sort of hole, or crack in this brick wall. A way to get out of this derelict site and back home.

But it was then she stopped as several horrifying realizations hit her all at once.

She couldn't feel the weight of her phone in her pocket, she knew she was in the same clothes she had been when she set off running, her red jumper and grey running pants, her hair was still pigtailed in two plats that highlighted her orange locks, but her phone was missing, as were her earphones and every other possession she had on her when she began her run. Feeling her heartbeat accelerate in those moments she dug her hands into her pockets, which only confirmed this theory.

Another few things didn't add up, that made this place feel... just feel so wrong.

The starless sky, the bright and larger moon, the fact this brick wall didn't seem to have any way past it, or any cracks or holes, while the rest of the structures around here were rotting, crumbling or derelict, and where was the graffiti on these things? Old buildings like these should have been plastered in the stuff, everything about this place felt wrong... it felt... strange.

A distant scream, a woman's scream made her head snap up and her heart rate accelerate, so much so she felt her heartbeat in her ears.

In fact she felt her heartbeat become loud, far too loud from what was natural, it was consuming everything else, she couldn't hear the moaning building anymore, she couldn't hear the wind, or her own breath or footsteps. Just the heartbeat in her ears that was all consuming, a warning was ringing in her head, something was coming, she didn't know what it was, but it was close and getting closer with every passing second.

Panicking now and putting her athleticism to good use, (despite not being tall enough to jump up to the top of the gated part of the brick wall) she used her lower leg strength to place a foot on the wall and then hoist herself up, so much so, her outstretched hand clamped around the cold metal of the gothic spike. Smiling, she locked her other hand around the metal and crouched her legs to propel herself upwards so she could hurl herself over these spikes (despite the risk of potential cuts).

Yet she managed to get a quick glimpse of a misty, barren field at the other side of the fence, before it appeared.

She couldn't describe what it was, like a massive spider's leg, wrinkled, black, creaking as it floated there, right in front of her, the thing suddenly jabbed it's sharp ends it Meg's hands, before plucking them out.

Meg felt herself fall to the ground before the pain hit her, she had landed on her back, her hands had been impaled and were bleeding everywhere, but Meg couldn't register the pain or anything in those moments, because the heartbeat was now overwhelming and a red stain had appeared over her spread eagled form and looking up, that was when Meg screamed to the high heavens above.

It was like something out of a horror film, a monstority with a mashed up moldy, brown face, two glowing silts of eyes and it was wearing the torn rags that vaguely resembled clothes someone down south would wear. What was more concerning however was the rearing chainsaw the thing was holding which the thing held up to the black sky, before the whirring metal was brought down on Meg's flesh.

It tore through her clothes and skin, as blood and pain exploded from out of her, she was screaming as shrill as she had ever done in her life, but she couldn't even hear herself over the heartbeat in her ears. Her body felt like it was on fire, as the thing suddenly hoisted her up on it's shoulder, the jolting movements causing Meg further agony, as she felt endless torrents of blood pour from her body and onto the thing's yellowish shoulder, she could only taste the coppery blood all around her and nothing else, no smells, no foul rotting flesh like she expected, just the blood and the horrid lumpy texture of this thing's shoulder and loose black hairs.

She clamped her eyes shut.

"God, let it end, let it end, let it..."

The thing stopped moving, Meg only had a second to breathe before she felt the thing throw it off her shoulder and another agonsing blow hit her shoulder, she opened her teary eyes to see a hook was sitting right through it. She came to the realisation she was dangling up off the ground, on a meathook, bleeding all over the place. Her screams were deafening, the pain was unbearable, she wanted to thrash around and twitch on this hook but she knew that would only bring further agony.

The chainsaw wielding monster took one good look at her before it turned on it's heel and limped off into the distance, carrying the now bloodstained chainsaw in one hand and a threatening sledgehammer in the other, as it went Meg felt the heartbeat fade out, the red stain was gone and when the thing was completely gone, Meg was once again left in the creepy night, unable to move and in agony, dangling from this hook.

She didn't know when she stopped screaming, but she had done, the pain was still awful, worse than anything she had felt in her life, a few broken bones from athletics was nothing compared to being stabbed through the hands, sliced up by a chainsaw, then impaled on a meathook, she looked down at her body and almost vomited... how the hell was she still alive? By the amount of blood she had already lost, she should have been dead already.

But despite the shock, the light head and the bile already rising in her throat, she was better off than she thought she'd be, so trying to reign in her pain and reduce it to a painful murmuring, she did the only thing she could do at this moment.

"Help!" she croaked.

Of course, nothing was going to reply.

She was helpless here, she scanned her surroundings to see some sort of generator was in the distance, along with another one of the meathooks, which looked near enough identical to the one she had been placed on earlier, with nothing to see, she bowed her head to the ground and was forced to gaze at her mutilated body, as blood dripped off from her skin and clothes and onto the ground below her.

"I've been mugged, dragged here and murdered" Meg thought to herself "But what the hell is this? Some sort of sick murder show for the dark web or something? What's with the costumes? Were they customers? Am I just dreaming? Is Mum worried? What the hell was that thing earlier...?"

Thinking of that thing, she heard a familiar cracking and looked up again to see, that (once again, right in front of her) black limbs were slowly developing, the same black limbs that had stopped her from climbing over the wall. Yet as she groaned to herself, she heard (and saw) movement in the distance, by the generator she could just about make out two people crouched by the thing.

"HEY!" She exclaimed "HELP!"

They didn't move, nor did they appear to hear her.

"PLEASE, HELP ME DOWN FROM HERE!" She begged.

They had to have heard her now, she even saw one of the men turn in her direction, but he turned back to the generator as if she wasn't a concern.

"WHAT ARE YOU SICK BASTARDS DOING TO ME! WHAT IS THIS!? Meg exclaimed angrily, (in spite of her terror and pain) she felt her old temper resurface in those moments, whether they were in on this or not didn't matter in those moments. Why couldn't they at least help her down? What the hell was wrong with them!?

"HEY JUST TELL ME...!"

Before she could finish the sentence the heartbeat was back, groaning to herself, as the black limbs continued to grow in her line of vision, she soon became aware of another monster looming in front of her. It wore a mask, but seemed to have almost scaly, yellowish skin, with a dozen metal bolts and other bits and bobs protruding from it's shoulders, Meg should have been terrified of this creature, or whatever it was... but the same gut feeling she had earlier was telling her, this thing wasn't a threat. Not while she was already hooked up here, if she was down on the ground it would be another story, but this thing just stood there and watched her for a good ten seconds.

Still angry with those men and chucked into this surreall situation, Meg felt herself get frustrated with the thing as well.

"Just leave me alone!" she snapped at the monster.

In turn, it bent over and Meg heard a metallic chinking, turning her head in it's direction, she saw the thing had placed a deadly looking bear trap in the grass below her.

"They're not coming to get me, you're wasting your time" Meg felt herself moan at the thing.

It didn't seem to acknowledge her at all, but merely continued to watch her as those limbs grew larger in her vision, she wasn't worried about the masked trap laying observer, but whatever these black limbs were forming right by her, they felt more like the real threat and something that could affect her.

BING.

A sudden loud sound punctated through the heartbeat, the generator in the distance had lit up, casting light over herself and the monster, Meg very quickly saw the two men by the generator, flee to the left, the monster abandoned her completely and went to inspect the generator, as Meg watched it form fade slowly away...

"...it's okay... i've got you..." came a sudden hushed voice to her left, "just... ARRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Meg (like many scenarios in the past 5 minutes) had to process too much all in one go, firstly the fact that she had a saviour and secondly the fact her saviour (with a crushing clamp and splatter of flesh) had walked straight into the bear trap. His roar of pain drew the heartbeat back towards her, the trapper (as Meg was now going to call him) was back before the man could stop screaming, he lifted his sharp weapon and before long Meg (by craning her head to the left) could see the man suffering the same fate she had done minutes beforehand, the screams, the blood... the thing hoisting the man up on his shoulder before dumping him on the hook opposite her own.

She managed to get a look at his struggling form on the hook, as the trapper laid another well concealed trap in the grass below the man, he had to be in his early twenties like herself, wearing a bland white work shirt with a tie and plain black trousers and shoes. With a head of dark, spiky hair and distinctive black rimmed glasses, he had the look of a geek, but one so bland Meg wouldn't bother looking twice at. But seeing as he had tried to save her unlike everyone else here, it made him the number one person in Meg's books right now.

Deciding not to linger for too long, the trapper departed leaving the struggling man dangling there, Meg could now barely see him, because the black limbs were covering his form, they were like the legs of a spider magnified by a thousand. No one was coming to save her now that her one saviour was in peril like herself, these limbs had nearly formed, despite the pain she was in. She had to (if she could manage it) get herself off this hook.

She placed her hands on the hook above her and ignoring the shooting pain that shot through her entire body she pushed her body forwards using all the force she had in her body. The sensation of the hook sliding through her muscles was a pain that nearly made her scream again, but she knew screaming and shouting would draw those things back. So gritting her teeth she swung her leg forwards and pushed harder, willing for her body to move, before these black limbs could completely form and then who knew what would happen...

There was a burst of blood, more agony but a sudden gust through the air and a sharp collision with the floor, she came to realization she had freed herself.

"Yes!" she grunted to herself, despite her aching body she lifted herself to her feet and a made a beeline for the man on the hook opposite of her own, (careful to go around the bear trap) she found herself looking up at him, he was grimacing in pain and looking blankly at the ground, seemingly not noticing anything else around him.

..."it's okay... i've got you..." Meg said, echoing his exact words, these words made the man blink and snap out of his stupor as his eyes connected with his own.

"Oh... you got out... wow..." he gasped, clearly going through a world of pain himself and trying not to scream like Meg was "I... saw you get caught and I..."

"Have you just woken up here too?" Meg had to ask of him.

The man nodded.

"Well then let's you get you down and chat somewhere those things can't find us" Meg muttered, she grabbed the man's waist and used her remaining strength to try and pry him forward. But he gasped in pain and seemed to resist this movement.

"Dude, work with me, I can't drag your heavy ass of this alone!" Meg snapped up at him "Move yourself forward as I do... in three... two... one..."

On cue Meg pulled and the man (despite his open gasps of pain) pushed himself forward, the combined force sent him flying off the hook and bang into Meg herself, who lost her footing and fell to the ground once again, with this man falling directly on top of her, in which they found themselves nose on nose on the ground.

"I'm Dwight by the way" the man said, being in extreme proximity to him, Meg could conclude he was fairly ok-looking and Meg knew by the way he was staring at her, he thought the same of her.

Sudden murder and now sudden romance? This day just got stranger and stranger, what she meant to feel? Anger at the others for leaving her? Fear of those monsters... affection for this nerdy underdog that had attempted to rescue her?

Confused as Dwight must have been, Meg could only say one thing.

"I'm Meg by the way" she said echoing him once again, she had a feeling this would be a hobby of her's from now on.

Dwight offered her a nervous, pained looking smile yet he didn't move from his position on top of her and Meg strangely didn't want him too, corny as it sounded she enjoyed being in the partial embrace of someone who had attempted to do good in this sudden hellhole she had found herself within. Get chainsawed by a monster? That happened, stuck to a hook? That happened. Sudden kissing with a complete stranger in the middle of a derelict building site? at the rate things were going Meg wouldn't be surprised, she was just going to roll with it from now, she had either taken something, was dreaming or God knows what else was going on. Too many questions and too little time to answer them all or get her head around them.

Meg was getting rather comfortable under him, she could feel his body warmth on her, the blood and sweat that dripped from this clothes, each sharp inhale and movement of his eyes or twitch of his lips.

Without saying a word, he clamped his eyes shut and lent down for a kiss and Meg found herself reciprocating, locking lips with a complete stranger... of all the kisses she had in her life she knew this guy was inexperienced in the matter. But that didn't bother her, after being sliced open, and stuck up on a hook and abandoned a comforting kiss with a stranger was a welcome relief, Meg was sure Dwight felt the same way.

They broke apart after what seemed like only a couple of seconds and both nervously cranked open their eyes to look at one another, silently Meg took her bloodied hands and ran them across Dwight's face, as if this was already becoming a thing with them, he echoed her action almost instantly, as their fingers trailed through each other's hairs.

"You going to be copying me from now on?" Meg mused.

"You're one to speak" Dwight replied with a genuine smile, both of their breaths seemed to get deeper and quicker in those moments and Meg could feel her natural heartbeat increasing.

As they smiled at each other like idiots, Meg had to break the ice, she had kissed a random stranger (or been kissed) by him.

"Dwight, you're real aren't you?"

Dwight frowned.

"Yeah, are you?"

"I think so" Meg muttered "I erm... I'm not dreaming am I?"

"I think I am, I've never got to kiss a girl... like you" Dwight added quickly, going red in the face.

"So... we're real then" Meg concluded.

"I...well...somehow you feel more real that just a wet dream" Dwight said, as Meg had to chuckle slightly at this, but she could feel Dwight, she could feel her body aching, this was too crazy to be true, both of them thought that. That's why they had both kissed one another, if they were in a crazy make believe world, why not go all the way? What were the consequences anyway? But now as she came to the slow realisation that Dwight was indeed real, so was everything else...

"Dwight..." Meg began.

"...This... this is real" Dwight finished for her "I erm... listen about that... I... I thought was dreaming too..."

"Yeah I..." Meg began, now this wasn't make believe, it was going to get awkward, but pushing that aside that had to address the first issue here.

"So...how did we get here?" Dwight inquired.

"So...how are we still alive, lying here like bacon strips for those things?" Meg inquired, "Come on, up you get Dwighty boy, no wet dream for you this time I'm afraid".

"No. I got the real deal, somehow" Dwight muttered, he looked strangely lost as he got to his feet and offered Meg a hand so she was able to pull herself up.

"You got it because well..." Meg began "Just thanks for helping me back there Dwight"

"You had to save me!" Dwight exclaimed "I'm a failure as a white knight, aren't I?"

"You were the _only_ white knight there Dwight, I saw some others by that generator over there" Meg explained, pointing at the thing "Rather than help me, they just..."

She stopped there, the heartbeat sprung up again, Dwight had already taken her hand and was leading her behind a nearby brick pillar.

"You can hear it too?" Dwight whispered, as they crouched behind the pillar and held their breaths, going through all that agony again was something the pair of them would rather avoid.

"Yes" Meg whispered, as she dared peer past the bricks, to see that the chainsaw wielding maniac had returned, Meg could hear her heartbeat deafen everything else and felt herself hyperventilating slowly, as her thoughts got stuck on a sick replay, being caught by that thing all over again, the hook, the pain, the blood...

She couldn't hear him, but Dwight made another bold move and locked his own sweaty hand around her own, she looked back over at him and (on impulse) closed the distance between them, she applied the pressure back to his hand and shut her eyes, not daring to move, hardly daring to breathe, praying to whatever God was listening that the chainsaw monster wouldn't come and check behind this pillar, she could feel Dwight stiffen next to her, he hardly seemed to shake, but seemed more like a sweater. His hand was drenched with the stuff, so much so, Meg felt like she was holding onto a melting waxwork, despite the tang of blood still on her tongue she could sniff out the stench of his body odour from here, he stunk. But it was a comforting smell in this mad scenario, she couldn't hear a thing and couldn't taste anything but blood on her tongue, yet his touch and smell were the only thing keeping her grounded at this time, eventually (after what seemed like an eternity) the heartbeat faded and Meg heard Dwight breathe in relief, as she slid her hand away from his own.

"It's gone" she muttered the obvious.

Dwight nodded.

"So... how long have you been here?" he inquired "Where were you...?"

"On my morning run, I... I don't remember much, I was in the woods and then... I woke up here" Meg muttered scrunching up her face to try and recall more details, there had to be something missing from her recollection, but she knew there had to be something. It was prickling at her mind as she looked at Dwight, she knew he was in the exact same position as her.

"Yeah, I was on a work do" Dwight uttered "Some team building exercise, we trekked to this cabin in the woods and my boss pulled out some moonshine and offered me a sip... I don't remember much after that... then I woke up here" the bespectacled man informed the athlete.

"So we're both in this shit together, that's all we know so far" Meg said, as she did a crow landed next to them and began to caw rather loudly.

"Shoo!" Dwight hissed, waving his hands at the thing.

But like everything here, the crow was fundamentally wrong in nature and rather than get frightened and flee like any normal crow would, this thing continued to caw more loudly, like some sort of alarm that would draw those killers back to them.

Meg grasped Dwight's forearm and pulled him to his feet, he spluttered something, but Meg was already dragging him through a tall patch of grass, leaving the crow behind.

"Why didn't it...?" Dwight began.

"Nothing here is right" Meg hissed back at him "Haven't you noticed? The hooks hanging everywhere, the crow just then, what's with those generators simply lying around? and I've got nothing on me, my phone or headphones... and why isn't that building covered in graffiti?"

"I didn't even notice that" Dwight squeaked "and what about us? We should be dead by now, but the blood on your clothes has already dried and cracked".

Meg had (for some reason) completely forgotten her wounds before Dwight had mentioned them, looking down to her shirt, she saw he was right indeed, the blood no longer poured out of her like oil, there was a terrible red slash on her skin and dried blood coated every fibre of fabric on the attire she was currently wearing, but that was it, dry blood. It wasn't wet nor was it fresh, cautiously she poked a finger at her wound to discover it still hurt like hell when pressure was applied and running and moving was painful as well, but it was like a dull ache, not something that should have paralysed her or made her die of blood loss like it naturally would have done.

"We're on drugs" Dwight concluded (after copying Meg and hissing in pain at his own dried wounds) "We've been drugged up and recorded for some... some sick internet show on the dark web or something"

"It explains how we're numb to the pain" Meg mumbled "But Dwight...there's... well... everything..."

"I don't want to hear anything else, not now" Dwight said, his eyes wide and fearful, he was looking at a spot just past Meg's head as another scream rang out from the distance.

"We need to find other people..." Meg began, noting the scream.

"A woman's just been hooked, other side of the building, can't you see her outline?" Dwight suddenly said, pointing in the direction of his gaze.

Meg squinted her gaze and shook her head, she couldn't see anything.

"What?" Dwight inquired, with a sad, little disbelieving smile "Meg, you can hear the heartbeat, can't you see the other person that's been hooked? I can see it clearly, just look that way..."

"I am and I can't see shit!" Meg snapped "Now keep your voice down..."

"But I... I can see it, the killer's over there... or one of them" Dwight shuddered, before he suddenly stopped and lent against a tree, he didn't hyperventilate, but this time he was shaking terribly as well as sweating so badly, Meg could already see the wet patches forming on his back and under his armpits, in fact beads of the stuff actually fell from his forehead as he turned to face the ground, his nose so slippery that his glasses simply slid off them and clanked on the soft earth.

"Dwight" Meg called out, seeing him freeze up like this wasn't a great sign for her, the distant PING of another generator being powered, did little to lift her spirits.

"I'm dreaming" Dwight uttered, sounding lost "I've... I've been drugged up or... or..."

"Dwight"

"I'm hallucinating or..."

"Dwight!"

"...I..." he smiled and laughed hysterically "I don't get stuck in traps, put on meat-hooks, or kiss girls or see people through walls...I... this isn't real..."

"Dwight look at me!" Meg pleaded.

"You're not real" Dwight said, refusing to look at her as more than sweat began to roll down his cheeks.

"Come on... we can't... we can't stay here..." Meg began with a false smile.

"I... I'm going to die... I'm...!" Dwight began to sob.

"No, no you're not!" Meg was now nearly screaming at him, not really caring about the tone of her voice, but his crying made tears well in her own eyes.

"Dwight please stop, you're scaring me!" she wept, as she felt her vision blur and hot tears fall down her cheeks.

"I... don't want to die, God someone... someone... help..." Dwight trailed off, simply falling to the ground on the spot and weeping into his hands, Meg simply watched him, weeping herself. It was too much for the pair of them to take in, too much to think about, too many questions, what were they supposed to do? Why could Dwight see this and she couldn't? She wanted to stop and try and chat things over to try and make sense of everything, but she couldn't because they had stalled in one place for too long and another crow landed at her feet and began to caw again.

"Tell it to STOP!" Dwight wailed into his hands.

"I can't" Meg muttered.

"MAKE IT STOP!" Dwight roared this time, as the heartbeat flared up in their ears again, Dwight heard this and wept harder, while Meg felt herself react automatically, she scooped up Dwight's glasses on the ground and then grabbed the nerdy man by his sweaty arm and hauled him to his feet and together they ran, Dwight half heartily and still weeping, (with a slight limp due to bear trap he found himself within earlier) but he kept on his feet and ran after Meg, quickly ducking behind a large stone and next to a strange coloured hatch (that Meg tried to open but had no success with) so disregarding the hatch, she waited until the heartbeat faded and she turned to face a now dry eyed Dwight.

"I... I'm scared" was all he muttered pathetically.

She wanted to berate him there and then, but found that she couldn't because she was close to collapse as well.

She simply patted his shoulder and said "Me too, Dwight, me too".

"What now?" he muttered, as Meg handed him his glasses back, thrusting them back onto his nose, he sniffed and looked blankly at a blade of tall yellow grass next to him.

"Let's just go with it, not much else we can do until we're somewhere safe" Meg said "Dwight, we can use your... ability. Is that woman still on the hook?"

Dwight quickly turned his head and then shook his head.

"Can't see anything" he mumbled "But that's how I found you, I saw your outline on the hook as well and..." he paused there, he couldn't think of anything else to say in those moments.

"We've got to keep moving" was all Meg said "That crow keeps coming along when we stop in one place for too long and draws those things right too us, let's keep to the brick wall and find a way out of here, okay?"

Dwight nodded.

"Are you okay now?" she asked gently of him.

"No" he admitted honestly "But I'm glad you're here with me at least"

"You said I wasn't real a minute ago" Meg reminded him.

"Please be" was all Dwight replied.

"Same applies to you" Meg retorted, "Now let's move..."

* * *

Herself and Dwight remained silent as they clung to the wall and continued to move onwards through the never-ending night, Dwight suggested trying to climb over the walls, but Meg had informed him she had already tried that and showed him the marks on her hand as proof of the story that the other "thing" had appeared and prevented that option of escape. Meg wondered even if they did find a way out the other thing would prevent her escape again, she didn't want to think about that and she could tell by the way Dwight fell silent, he didn't want too either.

Occasionally there would be a distant PING of a generator, or the heartbeat would flare up again and both Meg and Dwight froze in place, stopped their breathing and waited for the killer to pass, steering clear of generators, the building in the middle of this site and even strange totems that were dotted around the place. The crystal white skulls, standing out sharply amidst the dark night and glum setting around them, but despite the urge to go and fiddle with the generators they saw, or the totems, Dwight and Meg steered clear.

"It feels like...we should be helping set up those generators or something" Dwight finally whispered, after they passed their third one.

"Too risky, seems like the killers are drawn to those things" Meg replied.

There were the hooks as well, a much more common sight than the generators, totems or people for the time being, more meat-hooks that Meg would have ever liked to see in a place like this. Only twice during their trek did Dwight see other outlines on the hooks, before they were quickly removed his line of sight, so they must have been saved by someone else, this area seemed vast enough to hide quite a few people and killers. Also dotted around were numerous ruby red lockers, that seemingly served no purpose other than for Meg and Dwight to hide in, when the trapper approached them once again, they had dived inside of one (and trying to ignore the stench of sweat and close proximity to one another) and held their breaths once again, the heartbeat faded and the pair of them untangled themselves from the web of limbs they had managed to get themselves tangled in, the creak of the locker doors opening was a bit too loud for Dwight's liking, as he winced openly at it.

"If they find us in one of those lockers, we're done for" Dwight whimpered "Let's just keep behind trees and rocks for now"

Meg nodded, only half listening, her legs were beginning to ache, her limbs going stiff because it had felt like herself and Dwight had been walking for hours. Out of all the pains she had suffered tonight, she could scarcely imagine herself getting tired and moaning about stiff limbs, but that's what she felt like complaining about. She looked down at the giant slash that tore from her collarbone down to her waist, the red line surrounded by cracked dry blood, she had gigantic wound, caused by the rusty blades of a chainsaw and she (an athlete) was considering moaning about being tired?

She laughed openly to herself, causing Dwight to look at her oddly.

"Are you okay, Meg?" Dwight inquired, casting her a funny look.

"Fine... just..." she didn't know what to say to describe what she was thinking, so she simply settled with "Just thought of something funny".

"What?"

"Doesn't matter"

DING!

A sound louder than anything else before it, Dwight's eyes snapped upwards, stopping to a point just left of Meg's head, something he saw that Meg couldn't caused his face to brighten considerably.

"A door panel! It's not far from here!" he mused "I'm sure of it Meg, I just got this feeling, follow me...!"

His sudden breathless excitement was another thing to take in, as he grabbed Meg's hand and ran forward, she realised that she was tired as an athlete and Dwight's sweating was because (quite frankly) he was very unfit. Several times on their trek he sounded out of breath and the perspiration made his clothes cling to his body as if he had just dove into a pool with all his current work gear on. Yet despite his exhausted state he was in whatever he had just seen, was making him run faster than he probably had done in a while, they seemed to come close to this "door panel" when Dwight stopped as another scream rang out.

"NO!" Came a man's bellow.

They ducked behind a nearby tree, but peered out so they could see everything.

A woman had obtained a freak-ish looking knife, a black, veiny sort of thing that seemed to pulsate with the night, she was covered in blood, yet the knife wasn't, Dwight whispered next to her "the knife absorbed the blood" a strange truth that Meg seemed to know as well, where the blood had come from? The answer was at the woman's feet, a man and a woman lay sliced open at her feet, their heads rolled off their bodies and the limbs lying in separate puddles of the crimson liquid.

Behind her, a large door had been opened, but she didn't seem interested in going through it to what lay beyond, unlike the man who had bellowed, who was clinging to the side of it, a look of disbelief and shock on his face.

"GLORIA! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?" He screamed for the night to hear.

"You know what I did Martin" the woman muttered, her voice cold and high "Our group is finished, I don't care anymore"

"NO! YOU'RE BETTER THAN THIS...!" Martin yelled.

"It's too late" was all the woman said "Here comes the entity".

The horrible, spidery black legs that Meg had seen earlier manifested now above the bodies of the slain man and woman, Meg tried to control her racing heart and the chill that ran up her spine seeing that thing (the entity) descend from the black heavens, all talons and sharp claws and above those long, black, creaking legs... a dark mass, something she couldn't identify, all she knew is that the entity scooped up the bodies of the truly dead people here and carried them upwards until both entity and bodies vanished into the black sky.

"Ava... Jasper..." Martin trembled.

"Suffering forever, the entity will feed on their souls for eternity" Gloria muttered.

"Why!?" Martin now wept, "Gloria, why...!?"

"Because I didn't want the same fate, we've spoken about this countless times Martin!" the woman called Gloria screeched "The same conversations, the same people! For years and years we've been doing this, can't you see!? The journal is right! We either join the entity or end up like Ava and Jasper. I made my choice, the entity requires sacrifice, it requires blood and I paid my price".

She smiled there and lay herself on the ground, Martin trembled but didn't move, suddenly the entity had returned and thrust one of it's black legs between the woman's legs, she screamed in... in wasn't pain but pleasure, a smile forming on her face as savila dripped from her lips as she moaned in pleasure, as more of the entity's creaking legs jammed into parts of her body.

"I choose to live" Gloria groaned "No more running, no more hiding,no more pain, no more fake deaths, no more misery... Martin... you can join me"

"and kill innocent people, I'd never do that!" Martin sobbed.

" you'll break eventually, everyone does, this is just my point" Gloria said "I... I tried to be good for so long... but I don't care anymore. I just can't, Goodbye Martin"

and with that she laid her head back and went limp, as she too was lifted to nothingness.

* * *

Dwight and Meg didn't say a word, they merely crept up to the door and to the man named Martin who was weeping on the ground, he must have heard one of them, as he suddenly looked up. He was an African american man, large in size and probably in his peak state, wearing clothes that most likely belonged to a biker, yet here, this man wept like a child.

"Who are you? What do you want, did you...?" Martin began.

"Yes, what was all that!?" Meg inquired instantly "and you and that other guy, you were at that generator earlier weren't you? Why'd you leave me? What the hell is...!?"

Martin gasped, he sprung to his feet and wiped away a few of his tears, gazing at Meg and then Dwight in complete disbelief.

"Y-you don't know what's going on here?" he asked open mouthed.

"Well... no" Meg muttered impatiently "Me and Dwight here only woke up a few hours ago..."

"Oh... oh for course" Martin muttered "The entity knew what Gloria was planning, it always does, that's why new people were brought here, easy pickings for her, but she got Ava and Jasper instead... you're lucky, or unlucky depending on how you see it".

"See what!?" Meg thundered, fed up of the half answers "Jesus, we're both petrified, we just saw... God knows what in front of us, just tell us what's going on!"

Martin sighed.

"No. I'm not doing this again" he groaned "I'm done, like Gloria, I'm just done, this is the eighth time I've done this and the eight time everyone other than me has died, but listen to these..."

He chucked a large sack at Meg's feet, curiously she picked it up, it was heavy and seemed like it was full with books, she dropped it to the ground again after assessing it's weight.

"I've been in this hell for 11 years roughly and that's everything I found in all that time" Martin muttered "Read it, especially Baker's journal, it will explain everything you need to know, I can't".

"Why not!?"

A new voice, cool, calm yet there was a hint of aggression in it, as the trio of them turned to see two newcomers slowly creeping up on them, one of them was a plain looking man in a heavy green jacket, with wild black hairs and similar coloured eyes, whereas the second was a woman around Meg's height in a slick red jacket and with glasses similar to Dwight's, with braided hair and dark skin, the woman wore a look of anxiety that was also similar to Dwight's own.

"So you're the other two?" Martin said, surveying them both "That's why there were two killers, there was eight of us in that trial, for every four of us, there's one of them"

"How many of these killers are there?" the man asked.

"More than you want to know, all with their own abilities, but you have them too" Martin said "The entity likes to play games you see, it will feed off your hope, feed off your soul, you... you four have no idea what hell awaits you, none at all and I don't want to tell you, I don't want you to find out... my only bit of advice I can give you is to hope, hang onto hope for as long as you can bear this place, that's all you have to keep yourself from going insane".

"How encouraging" Meg snapped.

Martin turned to her and smiled.

"You're just like me, when I first woke up here" he mused "Sarsatic, confident..." he laughed there "You'll go far girl, don't worry about that, looking at you all, it makes me want to go back, so badly..."

"You said you've been here 11 years?" Dwight picked up on, suddenly speaking up "How? Why haven't you tried to call for help? Or signalled the police or anything? Surely there must be search parties around...?"

Martin laughed.

"You... you're like infants!" he guffawed "None of you... none of you have a clue, do you?"

"If you keep answering us with questions and half answers then no, we don't" Meg snapped, her eyes then flickered through the doorway to see the misty field beyond that "This is the way out, right? You can tell us that much"

"Yeah, that's the way, you'll get yourself to a campfire, but you won't have escaped, no matter what the entity tries to show you" Martin muttered.

He then pulled out a dagger from (seemingly nowhere) it was the same one the woman earlier had been holding, instantly the four newcomers leapt backwards in alarm, it was clear to Meg the other two newcomers had also seen what had occured right by this door, yet the Martin held the dagger to his throat rather than himself.

"The entity gives us this dagger when it knows it's our time" Martin explained "Whether you choose to sacrifice your friends and become a killer like it desires, or whether you chose to turn the knife on yourself and suffer for enertity, or so the journal claims" Martin said "Is the choice you'll eventually have to make, I'd swore I'd never kill an innocent and after all these years, it's the only promise I'm able to keep. If I carry on... I'll start thinking like Gloria... temptation will creep in. I can't allow that".

"I'm sorry for your friends" the man with the wild hair said, approaching him slowly, Meg knew he was going to try and stop him and grab the dagger himself "That Gloria woman... whatever drove her to do that... to murder her friends..."

"Her lovers, we all were" Martin said simply "The fun times we would have..."

The man with the wild hair paused in his tracks, Martin had chosen simple words, but impactful words, Meg had to clear wax out of her ears, had she heard that right?

"I'm sorry but..." the dark-skinned woman squeaked in a quiet voice, speaking up for the first time "Did you...?"

"Yes, when you're with a group for that long you'll either end up killing or fucking each other" Martin said plainly "When there's no hope, nowhere else to go, it's the only pleasure. The little dignified people you think you all are, those values will start to fade. The way the entity wants them too, you'll be savages before long, driven mad, because the entity will sponge out your hope, morales and everything you stand for, until you're just machines. Either looking for any sort of comfort and blindly surviving onwards, until grief and sorrow overwhelm you like it has done to me and you choose to end it. Or the feral hatred and anger will lead you to be a killer, or a killer's victim..."

"If you can say all this, you're aware of what you are" the man muttered, taking more steps forward "You can't be as insane as you think..."

"That's what scares me the most" Martin mumbled "After all this time, after all these years, I still have my mind, but have done... done the most appalling or shameful things, I'm... I'm sorry for you. All four of you, truly I am. But I can't do this again, I must take my leave".

"DON'T!" The man bellowed, suddenly lunging forward.

He was too late, Martin had already sliced his own neck open before the man could reach him, he tumbled backwards, but rather than choke or retch, or grovel with pain, he only smiled at the asthioned pack of four above him, the woman had moaned in pleasure after being impaled and now this? Something was definitely wrong here.

"You'll get used to the pain and the deaths eventually" Martin gasped, through a mouthful of blood "but... just remember..."

 _"Death, is not an escape"_

and with that he choked his last and went still.

* * *

The entity came to collect Martin and before long he was gone, leaving four blood flecked strangers facing one another, pondering on his words, as they did Meg looked at Dwight, that innocent kiss the pair of them had shared, now seemed a lot more sinister, Dwight's little breakdown, her fury at Martin and the other man, (Jasper) for leaving her on the hook. Were they the early signs of what Martin had warned them about? If he had lasted 11 years and 8 groups (that's if he was being honest) than how on earth did they expect to last? With no knowledge and being traumatized by just about everything they had seen today, what hope did they have?

Clinging onto hope, how could they take that advice, when Martin's last words still rang inside Meg's head.

Death, is not an escape.

"That heartbeat" the man with the wild hairs suddenly said, to break through the silence that had engulfed them, sure enough the heartbeat was becoming deafening and Meg could see the trapper and the chainsaw wielding killer, coming towards the exit door.

"So, you two woke up here today as well?" Meg quickly asked of the pair of them.

"Yeah" the man said "It's Jake and that's Claudette" he said pointing at the woman, who shyly waved back at Meg "and you two?"

"Meg and Dwight" Meg answered for him "Let's just get to this campfire Martin was on about and out of here, we have a lot to talk about later I'm sure".

Jake nodded, he seemed capable and calm and had a way of soothing Meg's frayed nerves, she could tell by the way a nervous looking Claudette hovered near him, that he had the same effect on her and with her eyes constantly flickering back towards the approaching killers, Meg knew she was probably a nervous wreck similar to Dwight, as they prepared to run into the misty field, Meg noticed her bespectacled companion was missing, she turned around to see he was bent over something.

"Dwight, what are you doing, come on!" Meg exclaimed.

Coated in sweat and shaking, Dwight panted and limped towards Meg, the killers hot on his heel, when he reached her she grasped his hand and pulled him forward, the four of them ran onwards, through the wispy tendrils of the mist and casting a glance back behind her, she could see the trapper and the chainsaw monster had pursued them and suddenly stopped, as if some barrier was preventing them from moving out onto the plains of this field. Despite Martin's words, Meg certainly felt free, doing as she loved... blindly running. The grass was greener and taller here, the moon's bright light cast down upon her, in a better mood now she was away from those things, she looked back at Dwight.

"What on earth were you doing back there?" she asked "They almost got you"

"Getting this" Dwight said, pointing at the bag Martin had once owned "He said it had answers, so I had to grab it"

"Smart cookie, I completely forgot about that" Meg muttered, cursing her own stupidity in those moments "You know, maybe I will keep you around now and not kill you like I was planning".

"Funny I was planning the same thing" Dwight said and in spite of everything, he found it in him to smile back at Meg.

"Copycat" she teased.

"Copy...err" Dwight replied lamely.

"You need to work on your banter" Jake informed the out of breath Dwight.

"I'm sure they'll be plenty of time for that, if what that Martin said was true" Claudette muttered.

Meg looked at the other three people she found herself with... 11 years seemed like an insane amount of time, but she heeded Martin's advice, despite the seemingly impossible odds she was going to hold onto hope.

Because with these three, she had a good feeling she'd be able to do that.


	2. Arriving At The Campfire

Like Martin had said, they reached the campfire.

It was flickering there, surrounded by nothing but the wispy tendrils of the mist in the vast expense of that field, where the sky was still as black as coal and the cold cut through their exposed skin like knives, yet approaching the roaring campfire, the mist seemed to melt away in it's welcoming warmth, the cold receded leaving a warm feeling in all of their guts. Meg's optimism was still burning inside of her, as brightly and fiercely as the campfire in front of her, despite Martin's words and shocking, gory fate merely minutes ago, Meg had to hold onto hope because in this strange place it seemed like that (and the other three people around her) were the only things she had.

"Is this like... some sort of gameshow or something?" Claudette asked as she settled by the fire and outstretched her hands in front of it "Do you think they're recording us to see how we'll react? Like a social experiment or something?"

"If it is, it's the dark web for sure" Dwight replied, huddling closer to the campfire "One of those people dressed up, got me and Meg up on one of those meathooks and the pain was real, the trap I stepped in as well, look at my ankle!" he emphasised, holding up his shoe, Claudette peered through the flames to see the torn bottom of his trousers and two deep gashes at either side of his ankle.

"We saw that man putting down the traps, the bear traps" Claudette muttered "and those look nasty, but... if it was a bear trap, it would have gone straight through your foot, or cut a lot deeper than that".

"It did!" Dwight insisted, "You can ask Meg, she saw it, she was up on the hook and I tried to save her!"

"Really?" Claudette inquired.

"Yeah, the chainsaw dude got me" Meg said with a light smile (unable to believe she was able to talk about it so lightly, when a few hours ago, it was the most agonising sensation in her life) "See this scar down my body, he used his chainsaw to do that to me, and look at our shoulders, me and Dwight both got impaled on those hooks".

"The wounds add up" Claudette said, observing the pair of them "But... how? If the injuries were that grievous..."

"That's been puzzling us as well, we should be bled out or be dead by now" Meg said "But we aren't, these things have healed up instantly, as if they've been left for weeks and treated with surgeries".

"They do" Claudette noted "Can I have a closer look at that scar... Meg wasn't it?" she suddenly asked, rather shyly.

Meg nodded.

"Okay" Claudette muttered, the African american woman stood up and walked on over to Meg's form, while Meg was left to look over at Jake, the Asian american man with the wild hairs had been silent this entire time, he merely looked into the flames, whatever he was thinking about intrigued Meg for reasons she couldn't put her finger on. Maybe he just had the aura of being the silent, brooding type that girls just fell for... but with Meg that was hardly the case. He had the aura of someone who _knew_ more than he was letting on. As if he could sense her gaze on him, he looked up just as Claudette pressed a finger against Meg's shoulder, causing her to wheeze in pain and look down at the bespectacled woman.

"That hurts doesn't it?" Claudette asked.

"Yep" Meg hissed. Claudette's fingers were soft too the touch, but it still hurt like hell.

"But this blood is all fresh, not a smudge of an infection" Claudette wondered in awe "I've never seen anything like it"

"Neither have I" Meg muttered "So, I'm going to assume you're a doctor or something"

"Botanist" Claudette corrected her, "But I know a lot in the medical field, it comes with the whole learning which plants are poisonous and which one's aren't, speaking of which..." at this point she retrieved some spiky looking leaves from the confines of her pocket and crushed them in the palm of her hand, as she did she told Meg to "Clench your teeth together" Meg obeyed this command as Claudette began to apply pressure the crushed leaves leaving a strange soothing sensation on Meg's scarred skin.

"Your typical nettle leaves" Claudette informed her "Crushed up they can help reduce the swelling and risks of infection in cuts and bruises, but seeing how your bodies don't seem to adhere to the rules of nature here, maybe the healing effects of these plants will come about a lot faster".

"Already feels like there's an ice pack on here, thanks Doc" Meg mused.

"Oh... nothing really" Claudette muttered, going slightly red and fiddling with her glasses.

"Why'd you pick them up anyway?" Dwight couldn't help but ask.

"I saw a woman get stuck on one of those dreadful hooks and thought... if I could do anything to help her, I would. So I grabbed my leaves, a small remedy to being impaled I'm sure, but I was afraid" Claudette explained "By the time I mustered up the courage to go up and rescue her, someone else, a man, I'm pretty sure, had done it for me. I think the woman on there was Ava and the man who rescued her must have been Jasper, the two that were..." she shuddered there, unable to finish her sentence.

For a few moments there was silence, nothing but the cackling of the fire and stench of burning wood that seemed to blot out the scents of Jake and Claudette, but they probably had a stale aroma around them, similar to herself and Dwight.

"Do you want to help Dwight over there with his injures?" Jake said, speaking up for the first time since they had arrived at the campfire.

"Oh yeah... sorry Dwight I forgot about you, now just stay still" Claudette said, as she approached the bespectacled man, while the African american was busy tending to Meg's new friend, Meg herself turned to Jake "So yourself and Claudette seem to be sitting pretty, no wounds or anything?"

"No" Jake muttered "I found Claudette early on, we both had no idea what was going on, so we sat tight, hid by one of those lockers by the exit door. Saw killers and people go past".

"Sat tight?" Meg inquired "What about that crow? It came and landed next to us and started cawing if we stopped in one place for too long".

"What crow?" Jake inquired, a look of confusion spreading across his face.

Meg felt herself pale slightly "You... you sat in the same place, didn't you?"

"Yes" Jake replied.

"When me and Dwight did that, a crow appeared after a minute or two and..." she stopped there, the perplexed look on Jake's face was hardly encouraging at all.

"Crows landed next to us, but they didn't make a sound" Jake muttered.

"I kept telling you Jake, it was _you_ " Claudette called back to him, as Dwight hissed in pain from next to her "When I was going past those crows before I bumped into you, they all took flight when I passed. When I was around you, they all stopped. It was a little thing, but I noticed it straight away"

"Well, I was good with animals" Jake muttered "But... I wasn't that good"

"Well Jake, everything here seems to defy nature so let's just go with that" Meg said "Speaking of which, Dwight, tell Jake and Claudette what you saw"

Dwight plunged into his tale, at the end of it, both Claudette and Jake looked at Meg and then back at Dwight.

"You saw people through walls, when they got hooked?" Jake inquired, in complete disbelief.

Dwight nodded.

"I'm not lying about this, I swear!" Dwight said "I saw Meg get hooked and that's how I found her"

"and then stepped in a bear trap, so I had to save myself and then you" Meg added "Then we hid, until Dwight here somehow saw the exit door being opened, don't ask how, maybe it's his glasses".

"Maybe, wanna try them on?" he asked of Meg, as he took of his glasses and... no. Meg couldn't accept this, his eyes already looked too small, that had to be fixed instantly.

"Just put them back on, you look weird like that" Meg muttered "Maybe, if we ever find ourselves in a situation like that again, I will borrow them, just to check".

"Noted" Dwight said.

"So that's your story then, woke up here with no memories of what you were doing before, noticed everything you were carrying was gone and then... well found the exit door after hiding and saw everything we did?" Jake summarised.

"Pretty much" Meg said, casting a quick sideways glance at Dwight, for whatever reason, there were more than enough questions and stories to tell, without complicating matters with stories of their bizarre kiss, or Dwight's breakdown, on top of their sudden, weird powers and whatever the hell that drama was with Martin back there and all the cryptic half answers he had given them.

"How did you save yourself?" Claudette suddenly inquired.

"Pulled myself off the hook, it wasn't easy" Meg muttered "and it fucking hurt like hell".

"I can imagine" Claudette said "But that Martin said we all had gifts of some sorts, Dwight's is quite clearly to see people who've been placed on those hooks, mine seems to be with my botany skills, or at least I think it is. Jake's got a way of calming the animals down and stopping that alarm crow, as you and Dwight experienced it and you Meg... maybe it's the ability to get off those hooks".

"Maybe" Meg muttered.

"I was thinking" Jake piped up "Before we decide to look at those books and notes Martin left behind...(his eyes briefly locked on the bag by Dwight's feet before returning to the fire) "Let's have a little icebreaker, I think we need it after that".

"Well, I guess I'll start" Meg said, making headway "Meg, or Megan if you prefer, surname Thomas, aged 24, work as a waitress in a restaurant close to home. Used the money I earn to look after my mum, but before that I wanted to run the track".

"So you were an athlete?" Jake inquired.

"A half assed one" Meg replied. "I did get a dream scholarship, but I gave up on that to look after my mother, I owed her that much, she did raise me"

"What about your father?" Claudette asked.

"Oh please" Meg snapped, this topic being sour for her "The only things I inherited from that bastard was the ability to run fast, because he ran faster than I've probably ever run the track, the second he learned my mother was pregnant, off he went. That... and being an accursed ginger as well".

This drew a few laughs from Claudette and Dwight.

"What about you Claudette, where are you from, what's your story?" Meg asked.

"Well, last name's Morel and I'm 28 if anyone's interested" Claudette began "I used to live in Montreal, but made the decision to leave to pursue a career in botany. Last thing I remember before getting off the bus from the city and taking a stroll in the woods..."

"I was having my daily morning jog, that's the last thing I remember" Meg piped up.

"I'm sure our families are looking for us though" Claudette said hopefully "My parents will be worried sick and your mother Meg... well she has to be worried too, right?"

"She'll be beside herself" Meg muttered, quite sad as she suddenly remembered the frail form of her mother, sitting all alone in that stuffy armchair, the frail woman, bent over with age, with wispy hair as grey as smoke, tormented by the onset of dementia, forgetting things Meg had told her merely minutes beforehand. She knew her mother had carers and her friends back home would help her at this time, she only hoped her parent hadn't forgotten her. Meg can't have been gone for that long and she knew all of her friends, the majority of her co-workers who she got along with would be looking for her. She had to hope... Claudette was right, they were being searched for right at this very moment. She had to believe that and try to ignore everything else around her, the supernatural circumstances and Martin's grim words.

"Anyone... significant other half looking out for you as well?" Claudette asked timidly of Meg.

"Oh God no, I've half a mind to be done with boys after my father and the few shitty experiences of boyfriends I had growing up" Meg recalled "What about yourself Claudette?"

"I've... I've been single for a while" the African american woman admitted "Other than my parents, I erm... I'm not that good with people".

"Well, you're doing okay so far" Meg complimented her, before she turned her attention to Dwight "So come on then boys, what about you two? Dwight, let's start with you"

"Well, it's Dwight Fairfield, I'm 23 and I work in a Walmart, used to be a pizza delivery boy" Dwight said listing off his jobs "Not the greatest jobs in the world but I got by. Like I told you earlier Meg, last thing I remember was our boss taking us out for a work do, he took us to this cabin in the woods, pulled out some moonshine. I took a sip and that's the last thing I remember".

"Your alcohol tolerance seems worse than mine" Claudette informed him.

"Believe me, you'd be hard pressed to find someone worse than me" Dwight said.

Both Dwight and Claudette laughed at this, Meg managed to offer a smile, she was glad to see these two nervous souls were becoming fast friends.

"So any special girl waiting for you Dwight, siblings, friends, parents?"

"Well mum and dad will be worried" Dwight began "No girlfriend though and I imagine... well my co-workers will be quite worried. I'm sure they'll be... I mean... they were my friends after all..."

He trailed off to silence after that, in a way that suggested Dwight's co-workers certainly weren't his friends, but he seemed to ashamed to admit it. Meg felt tempted to push the subject, but Claudette spoke up first before she could. Perhaps she could sense what Meg was going to say, but a fellow introvert seemed to understand Dwight a lot better than she could, so Claudette simply waved it off, with a positive "Well, I'm sure they miss you too along with your parents. Despite what that Martin was saying, there's got to be a way out of this".

"Hopefully" Dwight wondered aloud.

"How about you Jake, you've been quiet this whole time" Meg pointed out.

"Well I'm Jake Park, I'm 29, I think"

"You think?"

Jake shook his head "I'm a little out of the loop, I was coming on 29 a few days ago, so I could be now".

"Oh, okay" Meg said "and, what's your story?"

"Nothing interesting, I was a lumberjack, lived alone near the woods" Jake said "I remember going to sleep one night and... then I wake up here".

"That's all, no parents, girlfriend, or siblings or anything?"

"I have my brother and parents and a few friends" Jake replied vaguely, in a way that suggested to Meg, that he too was being dishonest in some way. Whereas the case was pretty clear cut for Dwight being ashamed of what he was, hence the reason for his lies, she couldn't think about why Jake would lie. He seemed like a calm and reliable dude, but first impressions could be pretty misleading in some cases.

"Aren't lumberjacks meant to be all buffed up?" Dwight pointed out "Not that I'm saying you're not man, it's just..."

Jake smiled at him.

"I get that a lot" Jake said "People take movies and tv too much to heart, I'm just your causal lumberjack, sorry to disappoint".

"No, it's... it's fine" Dwight stuttered "So... anyway. Getting out of here, what's the plan?"

"We stay here for the night, this campfire is a welcome relief" Jake said, taking lead rather instantly "By tomorrow, we can trek north, I'm a good hiker and if we're trekking till nightfall and if these clouds clear, we can use the north star to keep in one general direction. We should come across a town or city before long".

"That sounds like a plan" Meg said "Anyone object to it?"

No one did.

"I've just noticed something" Dwight said "In all of our stories, we all went missing in the woods, what if it's the same woods...!?"

"I entered a patch of woods in Canada" Claudette muttered "and... what about you guys?"

"Iowa" Meg muttered.

"Utah" Dwight groaned.

"North Carolina" Jake said.

"Different woods, same shit" Meg concluded "This has the dark web written all over it, maybe it's some sick pagan cult or something, but it's definitely a set up, everything we've seen... all the wounds we've had. They've got to be hallucinations or something, we got pulled into a sick game and we got out".

"Maybe... maybe that Martin didn't really kill himself!" Dwight added "Everything with the hooks, the generators... it could have been a dream! That whole thing with that entity and the murders, it could have all been a set up! an act! The crazy shit people can do with technology and a few thousand dollars, I've seen YouTube videos on stuff like this! It's possible to do that, or to make you experience such agony with chemicals and plants..."

"I could think of a dozen poisonous doses that can cause extreme pain, but not death" Claudette said, "If this is an elaborate set up, it's possible, drugs made from certain plants can cause all sorts of wild hallucinations and seizures".

"Maybe it is all real and we're dreaming this stuff up" Jake cut through them "But..." he added, as the other three's faces fell "If this is all real and not some elaborate, sick, social experiment maybe it's best one of us stays up tonight to keep on guard while the other three sleep, or we take in turns to guard. Because supernatural or not, those killers, whether real or just maniacs in costumes, did try to do us harm, we don't want them sneaking up on us".

"Another good idea Jake" Meg mused "You're full of the stuff, but since you've done all the planning, I'll volunteer to guard..."

"No. You three need rest" Jake cut through her sharply "You're still wounded and with Dwight's account of seeing things, you're probably under the influence of drugs. You need rest to help you clear your heads and wait for your wounds to heal".

"I'm not injured Jake" Claudette muttered "I can take the first shift and..."

"No, I'll be alright doing it, you need rest too" Jake told her gently "You've had a stressful day, but I was proud of you back there, you didn't scream or panic, but kept your cool".

"Barely!" Claudette shrieked.

"That's why you need rest to calm your nerves, it'll do you the world of good, surely you know that if you're going to fashion yourself as the group's medic?" Jake said.

"As the group's medic, you need rest too" Claudette said "It's been a taxing day on you as much as the rest of us".

"I appreciate the concern, but I'm capable of handling myself" Jake told her calmly "Don't try and persuade me any differently Claudette, I'll take first shift, you get some rest".

Dwight lay down, offering Jake a quick "thanks" before Claudette followed his lead and finally Meg lay on the ground, sleeping there, by the roaring campfire, on the hard ground looking up at a black sky. It should have been uncomfortable and cold here, but she felt like she was tucked up in bed, next to this cackling ball of flames it felt comfortable and she felt herself slowly drifting off, but some of her doubts kept her eyes open.

"Hey Jake" Dwight said after a few minutes silence "What about the books in the bag? I thought you said we were going to read them".

"If this is all an elaborate setup, that's what they'll want us to do" Jake said "and I'd rather avoid that, and if this is the real deal... well you heard Martin. He wished he could go back to the start, where he didn't know about anything. Maybe that's best for us for a while".

"Well it will help me sleep easier, not knowing" Dwight said, "Night everyone!"

"Night" Claudette chriped back.

"Night" Meg grumbled "and don't kill us in our sleep Jake, or me and my ginger-ness will haunt your every dream"

"Acknowledged" Jake said with another small smile "Now you get some shut eye Meg, you'll need it for tomorrow".

Meg nodded before her head connected with the grass, she was half joking and half serious with Jake back there, if this was an set up, they usually had an inside man posing as one of them to keep this thing convincing and she was suspicious of Jake at this moment in time. His reclusive nature, his vague story describing a past life, his sudden stubborn instance in staying up and taking the first watch, of course she could have been wrong, her old coach used to tell she always used to jump to conclusions, she used too move _too fast._ Besides, it was Jake in the first place who had called for the icebreaker between them, why would he ask for that if he didn't have a convincing story? Maybe he really was just shy or ashamed of something and was only trying to be friendly, or...it could have meant something else.

 _"Too fast Meg, too many assumptions, don't just run fast, run smart!" Her coach had lectured of her._

If she was running fast now, she'd get up and run away from this campfire, damn Jake's plans and the other two, she'd run as far away from those killers as possible and make her own way back to her mother and her friends and try and put this nightmare behind her.

But she had to run smart.

She couldn't abandon these three who could keep her alive in the long run, based off a simple assumption and her own unfounded suspicions, when she woke up in the morning, (that's if she did) she'd know whether Jake was innocent or not. She had to put her trust in him, something a now lightly dozing Claudette and Dwight seemed to have done blindly, he did have a calming aura about him, but that could have all been for show.

She turned over slightly and looked into the campfire, she was becoming rather restless... how had the other two slept, under the influence of tranquilizers or more drugs? Who knew, but she realised then (after becoming more and more tired as she gazed into the flickering flames) that not one of them had asked who had lit that fire for them, her eyes were now shutting of their own accord, her wounded, battered and aching body couldn't keep itself functioning much longer, without much needed sleep.

But she needed answers, no matter how damming there were.

But she couldn't move her sluggish limbs, she was drifting off whether she liked it or not.

She realized then, why somebody else would want to stay awake, if he wasn't there to kill them, betray them or run off, why else would Jake Park insist on staying up when everyone else was asleep?

The conclusion was as clear cut as the day that never seemed to come.

 _He wanted answers._

 _and He was going to get them._


	3. Getting To Know You

"...still dark!?"

Dwight's half exclamation and half question is what woke her, Meg was expecting to see the early morning sun poking out from over the horizon and see a violet early morning sky stretched above her head. Instead she was looking up at a starry, yet still pitch black cosmos. Clouds passed overhead like puffs of soot from industrial factories.

She turned her head to see the campfire had burnt out, the smouldering remains reeked of burnt timber.

She looked up to where Dwight had yelled to see he was white faced, Meg felt adrenaline kick into her system again, why had she woken up now? Was a killer here? Had Dwight seen something? Where was Jake, wasn't he on guard? These questions raced through her mind, her old wounds seemed to prickle in a familiar ache as though she could sense oncoming danger, her heart beat fiercely against her rib-cage, as sweat broke out across her skin. Why had she woken up? What was going on?

"You've been out for around 8 hours" came a soothing voice.

Meg mentally slapped herself, panicking just because Jake was just slightly out of her line of sight, this place had made her jumpy at the slightest inconvenience.

"Then, why the hell is it still dark!?" Dwight exclaimed, as Claudette yawned and slowly got to her feet.

"You tell me" Jake replied.

"What, it's still night!?" Claudette muttered in horrified awe, looking up at the obsidian black sky above her, after she had yawned and come to her senses on what was happening.

"That's right" Jake said "It seems something strange is still going on here"

"All the more reason to get the hell out!" Dwight exclaimed "Did anything happen while we were out?"

"Nothing, other than the fire burning itself out" Jake informed him "I tried to look for more firewood, but there doesn't seem to be any woods nearby and I didn't want to leave you guys undefended".

"Hang on Jake, you haven't slept!" Claudette noted instantly "I was meant too..."

"I said it's fine, I'm used too long nights, don't worry about me" Jake cut through her, before she could worry further.

"So you stayed awake for 8 hours roughly, just watching us?" Meg inquired, hardly daring to hide the suspicion in her voice, which the other three picked up on instantly, Dwight dropped his head, feeling awkward as could be, While Claudette looked cautiously at Jake and then Meg, while Jake himself was surveying Meg, his brows furrowed slightly. It was the look of slight annoyance, she knew it well and it seemed her inquisitive nature had bothered him for some reason.

"When I wasn't watching out for you guys, I was stargazing" he finally replied, his words cool and well chosen.

"Oh, you're into astronomy then Jake!?" Claudette piped up, as a way of lifting everyone's spirits and trying to defuse the obvious tension.

"Not really, I used to stargaze with my older brother when we were younger" Jake told her, before his eyes flashed back to Meg "Now, is there anything else you suspect me of?"

Meg felt herself recoil, as Claudette fell silent and the smile vanished from her face, Jake had openly expressed his troubles but Meg wasn't one to back down.

"Look, crazy shit is going on" Meg began, gesturing at the still dark sky to prove her point "My brain is all frazzled and I've only known you for a few hours Jake, same as everyone else here. I don't want to suspect anyone, but... I just can't help but question everything now".

"Likewise" Jake said "But, if I had wanted to do something, I would have done it while you were asleep, the fact you're all still fine shows you can trust me".

"Is that why you wanted to take the shift so badly, so you could prove that?" Meg asked.

Jake paused for a moment, his eyes flashed before he nodded, but Meg (not usually this observant) had her eye firmly locked on him and his every moment. It seemed like she had just dropped a great excuse into his lap, which he was going to use to avoid suspicion. Maybe Meg was overthinking this again, but she couldn't help herself.

"Run smart, not fast" she thought wearily.

"Well, maybe we should all do that, if trust becomes an issue" Claudette spoke up quietly "Or, we could still take it in turns, look out for one another and all that".

"Sounds good" Dwight said, lifting his head once again and addressing the group, now the storm had seemingly passed "But for now, can we try and get out of here at least? Jake you said you could lead us north, didn't you?"

"Yep" Jake said simply "North star's right above your head Dwight, so if we go in that direction..." he pointed a straight finger in the empty field behind Dwight's head "We know we won't be going in circles and we despite the circumstances, we might find a town or village, or even a barrier or an exit of some sorts we have to find, this place has to end somewhere".

Meg wanted to believe that too, but Martin's words came back to haunt her.

 _"...you'll get yourself to a campfire, but you won't have escaped, no matter what the entity tries to show you"_

Was there any chance of escape? Those black, creaking legs of the entity, whatever the hell it was, would it allow them to escape? Meg highly doubted that, but if this thing was oh so powerful and could stop her escape over the wall and turn people into killers, why did it allow them to escape here? The word "trial" came back to Meg as she gulped, Martin knew the campfire would be here, he knew how many killers were by that old building, he also knew they'd reach this place. So did the entity allow them the warm campfire and each other's company. It didn't make any sense, wasn't it meant to be something evil? Yet, an even darker thought ran through the redhead's mind, as she looked down at the bag filled with books and notes that Dwight had used as a makeshift pillow. Now the bag was lying at Dwight's feet, but she knew it would be easy to pluck a book or two out from under the nerdy man's snoozing form.

She looked over at Jake, there was no doubt he knew the truth now.

The question was, did she want to know as well?

The dark thought was running rampant in her mind though, curiosity was clawing away at her sanity, it would drive her mad not knowing, but it might have driven her insane if she knew. There was no way she could win... but the dark thought remained lodged in her brain.

The fact the entity allowed them to escape, the campfire that was waiting for them, their bodies healing quickly, the never-ending night, the fact she had somehow slept without any dreams or nightmares.

A trial.

Like one of her runs, she didn't feel as thought she was escaping from something, as she looked at the misty field ahead of her.

It felt more like...

She and the other three... were merely being toyed with.

* * *

"That's why the heartbeat had to be that loud!" Claudette exclaimed, having her eureka moment, with Dwight as her only eager audience "When under certain substances, the body reacts to stress. Stress itself causes a flight or fight response and the flight response is clenched muscles, increased heartbeat and perspiration on the skin, ready for an escape and after seeing those killers, that's the way the body responded!"

"But no heartbeat could be that loud!" Dwight counter argued "Believe me, I've been in situations where I've felt fear before..."

"Under substances?" Claudette added.

Dwight grimaced.

"Well... not really" he mumbled at last, "It was more the whole... high school thing y'know? I wasn't that...good"

"Good?" Claudette inquired, but something about his silence stopped her from prying further like Meg would have done "No, I... I get it. I was quiet as well, but even large groups of people and loud parties never made me that nervous, not to extent those killers did" Claudette explained.

"But if we are concluding they were just guys in costumes..."

" _Big_ guys in costumes" Claudette said "Did you get a good look at them? Both of them had to be at least 7 feet tall".

"Didn't notice, considering I had a lot of other things on my mind" Dwight huffed "But yeah, okay this whole thing had to have been a sick dark web social experiment, we've been drugged up and brought here".

Meg had to smile at their theories, ever since they had walked away from the remnants of the campfire, Dwight and Claudette had spoken non-stop about the zone they had found themselves in yesterday. From the closets, the totems, the exit door, the other survivors, the neverending night, the generators, the meathooks and now finally the killers themselves, along with the loud heartbeat. Whereas the pair of talkative introverts lingered at the rear of the ragtag group, pondering on with their theories and speculation, Meg was slightly ahead listening to them, while Jake himself was taking far strides at the front. Leading the way and seemingly appointing himself as the leader, Meg noted that the bag of books was clenched in his grip and he had seemingly no intention of opening it nor mentioning it to anyone, other than briefly assuring Dwight he'd be fine carrying the thing.

"...and maybe they were wearing the skin of the past victims...!" Claudette was theorising wildly, as Meg tore her eyes from the asian american man leading the group and back towards the dark skinned woman "Those other guys were acting or something, it's easy to fake blood and deaths like that! Those ruins and totems seemed so out of place, they must have been rigged with spy cameras! Then the... the entity, machinery and prosthetics can make stuff like that seem convincing, it's like a murder live show on the darkweb!"

"and the horror theme as well!" Dwight added "Maybe it's always dark, because we're near to the north-pole and because of the tilt of the earth at certain times of the year, it can appear as night for days, I saw a YouTube video on it, the most isolated places on earth..."

"That would explain the cold as well!" Claudette said "Maybe we're in greenland, but here there seems to be a lack of ice..."

"So, you're saying they went to this extent to do this to us?" Dwight muttered "It could be Iceland or Greenland, considering there are areas of Iceland that are green due to the volcanic activity warming up the island, but the area would make sense. If something like this was to happen, they'd use some of the most isolated areas on the planet to get away with it".

"But setting up all that, shipping us here from America and Canada and why us?" Claudette uttered.

"We'd have to have been out for days then" Dwight muttered "But I'm with you on that Claudette, why would anyone go through that effort to get us? Of all people?"

"Well, we all went missing in the woods" Claudette said "They must have operated across the country, around wooded areas. That's why we can't remember anything, all of us were alone in the woods and we were drugged up and..."

"I was with my work-mates though" Dwight pointed out "But then again, I must have wondered off, or passed out or something, unless those bastards got all of us".

"You were probably drunk, no offence Dwight but you might have done something stupid, or wandered off alone" Claudette muttered.

"But if that's the case... then these people... if they intended to kill us and if they were wearing the skins of other victims..."

"We don't know that"

"I saw a YouTube video on what happens to your body after you die and dead skin looks a lot like what those two killers were wearing!" Dwight piped up once again "and that serial killer, Ed Gein, made his furniture out of the victims skin. This could be similar, they tried to kill us and failed..."

"But why would those other survivors act the way they did?" Claudette inquired "If they wanted to kill us, they could have done right there and then..."

"Who knows? Maybe because we were all so on drugged up on whatever we had" Dwight suggested wildly "We didn't see things right..."

"We all saw and heard the same things, but maybe that's possible!" Claudette said "What they did doesn't make sense, to bring us here out of everyone and of everywhere... but then again crazy people and serial killers don't make a lot of sense in their actions".

"Some do, some are cold and calculating and know how to cover their tracks" Dwight said "Like have you heard about the Zodiac Killer? and people do shocking things all the time on the dark web. I've watched YouTube videos of what's apparently on the dark web, things like live assassinations are filmed, along with rapes, murders, stonings, torture and suicide, it's crazy!"

"How many dark YouTube videos do you watch Dwight?" Meg piped up at last, joining the conversation "You'd look like the sort that watches and reads comic book stuff online and that, not... serial killers and stuff on the dark web".

"I get bored sometimes, YouTube takes me places" Dwight informed her "Besides I am a big fan of comics and all that, I was reading through the Amazing Spider man comics, you know the originals before all this..."

"Oh My God, have you gotten to the issue where Gwen Stacy...!" Claudette mused excitedly.

"Yes!" Dwight exclaimed "I was in shock when I read it, I knew the Green Goblin was bad, the spider man films were enough to tell me that, but in the comic damn... killed by whiplash".

"It showed it in the Amazing Spider man films!" Claudette mused "But to be honest, I never liked Gwen that much in the comic or the film"

"She was fine, but I prefered Mary-Jane and Sam Raimi's trilogy, yeah even the third one!"

"The third one!"

"Yes!"

"But, the dancing scene..."

"Probably what I look like dancing, I can relate" Dwight mused.

"So are you a fan of the marvel films...?"

"Hit or miss" Dwight replied at Claudette's question, "I mean, they're all just the same if you think about it".

"You know, speaking of films and all, I just realised something we don't know about each other" Meg said "What day did we actually go missing?"

"January 7th 2018" Dwight and Claudette said in sync, before they looked at each other in amazement and then back at Meg, another mystery she had tried to bring up that had fallen flat, as she simply nodded and remembered that, the 7th was the last day she remembered before going missing.

"Same here" she uttered, "What about you Jake!?"

Jake didn't seem to hear her.

"Jake!"

He shook his head (snapping out of his train of thought) as he turned to the redhead.

"Yeah?" he grumbled.

"What day did you go missing? Do you remember?"

"Around the 7th of January, I think" he muttered.

"Well then that answers that, we all went missing on the same day" Meg said "Maybe at different periods in the day, or night, but hell if we were abducted, it was well organised".

"Do you think we were?" Claudette asked of her.

"Maybe" Meg said "None of this makes any sense, but hell, maybe those books in the bag will give us some answers!" she exclaimed, drawing attention to the bag Jake was holding, who merely shrugged at her call.

"Could just be rubbish" was his only response "Let's just find a town, or village or something, then we can read them and see what that Martin actually found or what he could come up with"

With that he fell silent and continued to walk on, Meg wished Dwight and Claudette would question him further, but they seemed reassured in his presence and didn't seek anymore answers from the man. Instead they lapsed into another friendly chat and Meg didn't want to ruin the nice mood, so she kept her head down and her thoughts to herself.

The sound of her name however, brought her back to reality.

"Erm... yeah?" she asked of Dwight, certain that he had called her.

"What's your favourite Marvel film? If you liked Marvel films and all that..." Dwight muttered shyly.

"No, I was more the bitchy cheerleader in high school, who only cared about fashion, make-up and boys, dated a dozen quarterbacks and all. Lost my virginity at 15 and did drugs at 13 and got drunk for the first time at 12".

Claudette and Dwight's eyes widened behind their glasses.

"Reall..."

"No, of course not, honestly!" Meg found herself laughing "I was just the angry ginger who ran track, didn't really manage to keep a constant friendship group though, considering most people I hung out with turned out to be assholes"

"I was just the quiet black girl in the science club" Claudette informed her "My friends were alright I guess, we didn't get up to anything exciting though".

"I was just the geek without brains" Dwight lamented "I mean, you expect geeks to be smart and all that, but I really wasn't, we had this group of geeks in my high school and I remember them telling me the once that I... I was too stupid to join their academic club".

"Better off without them then" Meg said to lift his spirits.

"Yeah, I couldn't hate the stereotypical jocks and cheerleaders because I always made sure to steer clear of them" Claudette muttered "But there were a few in my science club, thought they knew more than everyone else and it drove me insane listening to them sometimes, they were smug, snobs almost. Some people think just because they know more than others, that puts them on a pedestal".

Meg couldn't help but look at Jake as Claudette said this, she was right of course.

and that could apply to the asian american himself.

"You know I actually prefered Andrew Garfield as spiderman, over Tobey Maguire" Claudette said suddenly, continuing the whole spiderman debate "Those films stayed truer to the comics..."

"They were shit!" Dwight said, getting insanely passionate on the subject "The original trilogy had everything! You watched Peter grow as a character! The villains were interesting! The pretty boy in the amazing spider man was unlikeable as hell, who could relate to him at all!?"

"I don't know Dwight, he looked a bit like you with glasses on..." Claudette began to muse with a light smile.

"Pah, you only like that spiderman, because Peter Parker was _good looking,_ it had no depth to it..."

"It had plenty!" Claudette began to rage "I've read all the comics, I'll have you know...!"

Meg couldn't help but smile at these two admitted nerds, arguing over something so trivial over which spiderman media was better. Considering yesterday they had been chased by a killer, they were now debating this, it was like they were in some sort of ignorant bliss, unaware of the danger still looming above their heads and maybe if what Martin said was true, than maybe that was for the best...

She looked at Jake again, he wasn't involving himself in the trivial conversation at all.

Meg had a very sudden idea on why he was keeping so quiet.

"...Meg, side with me on this, you know the originals were better!" Dwight yelled, drawing her back down to earth once again.

"Sorry Dwight, I don't remember them that well" Meg said, her mind was too full of questions to back him up at this time, yet she couldn't help but interject...

"But I did like the very latest one, with Tom Holland in..."

"Boring!" was Claudette's instant judgement, while Dwight's was "OVERRATED!" which Meg had to laugh at.

Maybe being ignorant wasn't such a bad thing after all.

* * *

The continued to trek onwards throughout the day, stopping for routine breaks, Jake picked up on the fact he didn't seem to be growing hungry and thirsty, nor did he need the toilet. Meg realised with a strange little jolt that was true as well, Claudette put it down to shock, or (once again) drugs. But those things were quickly losing credible ground, every second they spent here, not starving, not thirsty, with wounds that were continuing to heal of their own accord, without feeling the need to pee or poop was unnerving Meg to a great degree, something was wrong here. They hadn't escaped, no matter how much Claudette used her scientific mind to try and rationalize everything, or how much Dwight used his blind and possibly foolish sense of hope and optimism to back her up.

Jake didn't say much, nor did he try and chat with the rest of the group, but kept going in grim silence and with the bag still in his grip, his only assertion that he thought the books were "most likely rubbish". Other than that he didn't say anything else to back up Claudette or Dwight, whereas Meg's supporting comments were growing more half hearted with every passing hour, because she couldn't believe it, as much as Dwight insisted that they were somewhere up north, there had to be a slither of sunshine at some point during the day.

But no, there was nothing, the stars were present for hours, the sky as black as it had always been.

Finally with her legs aching and with Dwight sweating profusely once again, a campfire (surrounded by a patch of thick trees) cropped up in their vision, instantly alert, Jake told them all to duck and that he'd go ahead and scout out the area for any signs of life or people. The other three watched him scour the campfire and the surrounding tree's it had been identical to the last one, Meg could almost feel it's warmth from here, a day of solid trekking had done little to warm her bones and her skin was turning a nasty shade of chalk white the longer she stayed crouched in place. Her breath floated above her in puffy clouds of vapour, while Claudette shivered to herself and Dwight moaned "Feels like I've been dunked in ice"

"It's because you're sweating so much" Claudette informed him, before she turned back to the campfire "I'm worried about him, you know".

"Jake?" Meg inquired, as both woman faced each other.

"Yes" Claudette admitted "He's been quiet all day, he hasn't slept for hours..." she sighed there.

"Maybe he's just not very talkative" Meg suggested unhelpfully.

"He seemed so comforting when he first found me" Claudette said "I was panicking, I had no idea where I was, who was screaming, why everything felt so ominous, but then... he found me. and he told me to stay calm and follow him and... I wouldn't have made it out if he hadn't have been there". Claudette admitted. "He... he just seems to know what he's doing and he looked out for me, he's looking out for us all, but how taxing do you think that is on him?"

"I can't imagine" Meg muttered, "I know I had my doubts earlier, but... I don't anymore, after seeing what he's been through" she lied, she had her doubts still firmly in place, but she didn't want to trouble Claudette or Dwight with them. If they trusted him, then she knew she did as well, or at least it seemed Claudette trusted him, as for Dwight she wasn't 100 percent sure.

"I need to make him sleep tonight, I'll take guard and if he refuses, I'll refuse as well" Claudette muttered with an air of defiance "I need to make sure he sleeps peacefully, no nightmares or anything troubling him and your wounds seem to be getting better. But I'll see if I can find anymore plants or herbs to soothe the pains or aches, there should be something in those woods and..."

"You talk about Jake looking out for us, when you're turning into the mother hen" Dwight pointed out, as Claudette's cheeks reddened considerably.

"Well..." she said shyly "I was a botanist..."

* * *

Jake concluded that the area was clear, he couldn't find any tracks or footprints belonging to a person leading away from the woods, but was certain someone was watching them and setting stuff up, which Claudette didn't like the sound of at all. Neither did Jake, because when he learned that she was planning to forge plants from the woods, he outright refused and told her not to worry and that they needed rest first and that he (predictably) would take guard again.

"You haven't slept in 24 hours, probably longer!" Claudette raved "You need some rest!"

"Claudette, I'm..." Jake began, rather taken aback by her sudden fury but she wouldn't have it. She was going forging and taking Dwight with her into the woods with her (most likely so they could continue their chats on popular media). It was clear (that in Jake's eyes) despite Dwight being taller and a male, he would have much prefed Meg to go with Claudette, but when he started to try and gently suggest that neither of them needed to go, Meg simply said she was exhausted and needed to sleep once again. Which resulted in Claudette and Dwight winning this round and going into the woods to look for plants to help them.

Which also gave Meg exactly what she wanted, she waited until Dwight and Claudette were gone and well out of earshot, before she stood up and sat directly next to where Jake was adjusting his scarf.

"Can I help you?" was all he asked, Meg's eyes locked on the bag he hadn't let go of all day.

"Jake, how bad is it?"

It didn't take him long to put the pieces together.

"You're shrewd you know?" he told her "More observant than Claudette and Dwight"

Meg wasn't interested in how shrewd she apparently was.

"I want to know Jake"

"You don't"

"I really think I do" Meg counter argued.

"No, you don't" Jake repeated stubbornly "I won't let you, I'm holding onto these books and notes for as long as I can, if I fall asleep before you do. You can sneak over and have a look, at your own risk and misery" he warned her "But if you try and get them now, I'll have to stop you".

"How bad is it that you have to hide it!" Meg exclaimed, growing irritated now "Don't you think, me, Claudette and Dwight deserve the truth?"

Jake was inspecting her with a steady gaze.

"I wished I'd never looked" he finally said "But then again, it's so outlandish, I don't want to believe it's true".

"Then I'll believe the same thing as well" Meg said "Now Jake, just show me. I want to know".

"I'm doing this in your best interest" Jake replied "and the answer is no"

Meg could have tried to tackle him there and then, she was an athlete, strong and fast. But he looked like he could be stronger and not to mention she still had her wounds and that was going to hinder her efforts greatly. She eventually concluded it wasn't worth fighting with him to get the answers, not now and not tonight (because she knew his guard would be raised). It was only a matter of time before Claudette and Dwight grew curious enough to start to want to peek at the books and notes and the stranger things got, the greater there curiosity would become, as would Meg's pushy nature.

"Fine, I'll leave it for now" Meg said with a defeated sigh "But, you know we'll all find out eventually"

"I'll try and delay that day for as long as I can" Jake said, accepting the inevitable but stubbornly, after that he lay down and didn't say another word, he was facing away from Meg and into the campfire, pretending he was asleep. But Meg knew he was awake, she too lay down in the warmth of the campfire, her curiosity burning away at her, as the flames ate through the logs next to her "How bad can it be, that Jake wants to hide it!" she thought (frustrated with herself), all the dreadful things that came to mind kept her awake until Dwight and Claudette returned, their mind free from worries as they laughed at something funny that only two geeks like themselves would understand.

How Meg wished she could be in their position.

and maybe Jake not telling her, really was for the best, because speculating on the very worst.

Might have been better than knowing the dreadful truth.

* * *

Jake (despite trying to doze off) offered Claudette his green coat, she initially refused but Jake placed it around her shoulders anyway and assured her he was fine by the campfire, he still wore a thick, black wooly shirt under his coat that kept him warm and the campfire washed away all the cold and returning mist. Meg couldn't help but feel like the pair of them were fastly becoming the mom and dad of the group, while herself and Dwight were the misguided children that needed guidance.

Speaking of him, the bespectacled, spider man ethunaist, decided to lay next to her.

"Did you enjoy your trek?" Meg inquired.

"It was alright" Dwight mused "Me and Claudette were ranking our favourite to least favourite marvel films... you know she's alright. I think I'm going to get on with her real well".

"She could be the girl of your dreams Dwight" Meg mused, happy for him.

"Oh no, more in a friendly way" Dwight said, as he removed his glasses and laid his head on his forearm "I'm not saying she's not good looking, it's just... well..." he sighed there.

"Is it because she's black! Dwight, are you racist!?" Meg muttered in mock horror.

"I'm secretly the KKK's co leader" Dwight replied "We also hate gingers and asians".

"Well, this group is doomed then" Meg said dryly as Dwight chuckled at her, before he fell silent and through his blurry eyesight he faced up at the stars, finally after a sharp inhale of breath he decided to speak up again.

"Meg, what you said earlier about not being a bitchy cheerleader" Dwight said "That was a lie wasn't it?"

"The bitchy cheerleader part wasn't" Meg said "But the rest was" she admitted, she had got drunk, lost her virginity and done drugs at an early age, it wasn't something she was proud of, yet she felt comfortable enough to confide all of this stuff to Dwight, for whatever reasons. If Jake made Claudette feel calm, than Dwight had the same effect on her, or it at least made her feel like she had someone supporting her.

"Are you judging me?" she asked after a while of silence.

"No" Dwight muttered, like she knew he would "I... I've never had a girlfriend, lost my virginity or done drugs and only gotten drunk a handful of times" he suddenly admitted, as Meg turned to face him, he was looking blankly at the sky itself, his glasses lying beside him, no emotion seemed to stir on his face as he confessed this too her.

"I'm not judging you either" Meg said "Don't worry about it Dwight"

He didn't say anything for another while, before he finally turned to look at Meg and she looked back at him.

"If we ever get out of this, will you stay in touch with me?" he suddenly inquired "I don't want to sound creepy or anything, I just... well I like the company. You and Claudette and maybe Jake too, if I can get the guy to speak with me a little more. You all seem decent".

"I'd like that too" Meg admitted "But I haven't even thought that far ahead yet, but after this experience it would be hard to forget you and the other two"

"It would be hard to forget my first kiss" Dwight said, before his eyes widened "I didn't mean that in a creepy way, honestly, It's just... It's just how I feel"

"It's fine" Meg reassured him, she hadn't figured Dwight to be a creeper, but she knew the man had his eye on her and he wasn't the worst looking man in the world, then again Meg's mind was so preoccupied she barely paid their interactions or kiss much thought, whereas he probably was.

"Are you cold?" he asked.

"I'm fine" she said again, he knew he was trying to emulate Jake in those moments, but lacked the coat for it, so he simply fell back into a silence.

"If or when we get out of here" Meg muttered "It will be nice, to meet each other's families and friends and hell maybe you could take me stateside and all, we could go on an all american road trip, just you, me, Claudette and maybe Jake too".

"You mean that?" Dwight muttered "Because I have an old car, it's not the fanciest but it gets the job done".

"Yeah, I've never been to Niagara falls or the Grand Canyon" Meg admitted "You could take me there Dwight, I wouldn't like the thought of leaving my mother again, but If I introduced her to the nice young man who helped me. I'm sure she'd be happy for me to go on said road trip, I have a feeling my mom would like you".

"I'm sure my parents would like you too" Dwight said "Hang on a minute, this almost feels like a date"

"It is" Meg admitted causally.

"Really?" Dwight muttered, open mouthed.

"Sure, why not?" Meg said "I hate all the treading around and nervousness and all that, I don't fancy kissing you, or doing anything else anytime soon. But hell, I'll admit I wouldn't turn down a date with you at all, I'm all up for it and we'll see where things go from there".

"That..." Dwight was smiling widely now "I'm looking forward to that Meg, you know I think Niagara falls would make a great first stop, I haven't been there either"

"Then it's settled" Meg said "Now get some rest and dream on that lover boy".

"Will do" Dwight said turning over "Night Meg"

"Night" she called back, it didn't take long to hear the faint sounds of Dwight snoring and she smiled to herself, glad to have put his mind in a state of ignorance bliss, as she herself turned back to the fire once again. She was telling the full truth this time, she wouldn't mind going on a date with him, he seemed very sweet and kind and was the type of caring, nerdy underdog she needed after she had gone non-stop after the bad boys which never ended well. Maybe she was finally maturing and the thoughts of Niagara falls and the clear blue sky and white mist at the base of the waterfalls made her smile, with her hand in Dwight's with Claudette chatting merrily at her side, they had only known each other for a short time, but already they seemed like a formidable team and fast friends.

But then Jake appeared in that vision, with his grim silence and motionless face, what he knew and with everything that was going on here. Meg just knew from the bottom of her gut, the truth of the matter.

That date with Dwight would never happen.

They'd never see Niagara Falls.

Because, they were stuck here.

and they would most likely die here.


	4. First Blood

"Meg..."

A voice was calling her, faint, high pitched and one that sent shivers down her spine, she became aware that she was awake and standing up, she looked around but couldn't see anything. She could feel her clothes rustling against her and the feel of cold air against her skin, but it was dark, impossibly dark...

"Dwight!" she called out on instinct, "Jake! Claudette!"

There was no response, as Meg gulped to herself, however before she could comprehend what had happened to her, or where she was, the voice cropped up again.

"Take 2 objects, your choice"

There was light, faint, dull and red, but it was something to look at, a series of blood red lines ran from where she was stood towards four different objects lying feet away from her, one object looked like a useless spring, the other a dull roll of bandage, the third a medkit, with a brown strap across it and finally a small flashlight, also branded with the same brown strap. Meg blinked and wondered what on earth she was dreaming about now, disregarding the spring or bandages, she went for the medkit and the flashlight, the second her hand locked around the flashlight, the voice spoke up once again.

"Which one do you want to take into the trial with you?"

Meg decided she was going to roll with it, but she was still perplexed, the obvious choice would have been the medkit, but for some reason Meg was unwilling to let go of her little flashlight. In this dark place she felt like she would need it, besides Claudette was a good enough medic in her own right and wounds in this place seemed to heal faster than what was natural, so she simply said "The flashlight".

The medkit vanished and she vanished as well, the red lights were gone and now the only thing that was lit was a mouth wateringly delicious looking cake, topped with icing of pale mint and cherry red's, the jam and cream in it's layers was bursting with a flavour Meg could smell from this distance. Her hunger (once non-existent) now came back in full force, her stomach rumbled audibly and in those moments she wanted nothing more than to run up to the cake and stuff fistfuls of it in her mouth. For an athlete she usually avoided cake, but the deficit of it made her crave it even more. She remembered pigging out on cakes her mother used to bake her for her birthdays growing up. This cake was almost an exact replica of that one, she knew it was going to be a treat.

"Will you give this offer to the entity?" the cold voice said once again, where it originated from, Meg had no idea but she looked at the cake and then at the darkness surrounding her. Whatever this dream was (despite her hunger) she knew better than to go for a clear honeytrap, so she simply said "Erm... yeah I don't want it".

With that (and too her sorrow) the cake burst into flames, the smoke filled her nostrils, it was everywhere, everything was blocked up and she couldn't breathe...

She gasped for air and awoke looking at the black sky, but she became aware of the fact there was no campfire warming her bones, the night was deathly cold and mist was thick all around her, she turned to her side expecting to see the smouldering remains of the campfire.

Instead, she looked up at a meathook.

* * *

"Oh no... oh no... oh no..." Meg whispered to herself, she was already on her feet and sprinting away from the hook, but it didn't make any difference, more appeared, all seemingly clumped together, she became aware of the other features as well, the totems, the lockers, the strange ruins...

"Not again, not again... not again..." Meg repeated to herself, running now, careful to tread lightly so she wouldn't leave tracks behind her, she found herself in a corn field, where the stalks were a dried and musty yellow, yet she lay there amongst the yellowing vegetation on the ground, these plants provided her cover and if she heard that heartbeat, this would be a good place to hide, although she wished her pinkish red jumper could have been any other colour, because she imagined she stood out a bit like this.

She could see the brick wall in the distance, it was a different location, but the rules were still the same here, they had to be.

"This is all real" she groaned to herself, whatever theories Dwight and Claudette had been dreaming up... they were all null and void now. Whatever was in those books Jake had been reading, it had to be true. She cursed herself in those moments, she should have been more persistent and demanded answers from him. Now here she was, lying on the ground on a corn field like an idiot, without any idea of what she doing.

"I'm just sitting here, waiting to be slaughtered" she thought to herself, she'd close her eyes when that heartbeat cropped up and pray not to be seen, but she knew throughout her life (and now here) that praying wasn't going to get her anywhere. She prayed her father would come home one day, she prayed her mother wouldn't fall so ill, she prayed she'd be able to go on that dream scholarship, but praying had rewarded her nothing but misery. Only her hard work had given her anything and with that the athlete in her came at as she steadily got to her feet.

Jake was calm and collected, now she had to be same.

Which killer would it be? The trapper, the chainsaw wielding one? Or maybe even another one? She dreaded to think but tried to remember everything Martin had said, one killer for every four people... if herself, Dwight, Claudette and Jake were here there would be one killer chasing them. If there were 8 there would be two, none of those generators had made the "DING!" sound yet, so Meg had a gut feeling it was just herself and the other three here and speaking of generators...

Through the tall stems of the dried out vegetation she glimpsed red and crept forward to see there it was, the generator, sitting pretty in this field, how was she supposed to repair such a thing? Yet she approached the thing regardless.

"What do I do!?" she muttered out loud, as she did she became aware of a small flashlight clenched in her hand, she had forgotten about it completely. in a moment of madness she clicked the switch to the flashlight and the dull light illuminated the generator.

Nothing happened.

"Of course it wouldn't" Meg snapped at herself, switching off the small device "If Dwight hears about that..." she sighed, so that dream of her's had to have some sort of significance if she had this flashlight with her now. Yet it wouldn't fix generators, she approached it and felt her hands move of their own accord, to the depths of the mechanical wonder of this field, in her nimble fingers she felt herself pulling and wrapping together loose wires, the work seemed automatic.

"How am I doing this?" Meg thought widly to herself, she was helpless at DIY and engineering and had been more akin to break things than repair them, yet with this rusty generator she was handling it like she was born to do this sort of thing. Without thinking, she felt a surge of electricity pass through some wires she had in her hands, she quickly pushed them together as they hissed and a piston at the top of the generator began to push itself up and the down... the piston became faster the further she worked, pushing together more wires, in the maze of connecting devices.

"This is crazy!" Meg muttered out loud, the generator was growing louder as the second of the four pistons began to pump away. She wanted to look around her, but she knew she had to keep her concentration fully on the generator itself. With every surge of new electricity that passed through the wires, she had to clump them together, she had a feeling if she didn't do this, there would be consequences, or a harsh electric shock. Despite wounds healing in this place, she would rather avoid the shock and she came to the conclusion that if wounds could heal fast her, this... entity had given her the ability to fix these generators without even having to think properly about it. Just keep focused on them and make sure the currents passed through the wires...

Further and further her hands dug, this was the most bizarre experience of her life and that was saying a lot especially compared to the last fuck-fest she found herself in. Her fingers trailed over whirling and spinning gears as the generators noise reached a fever pitch, all the pistons were now pumping and...

DING!

It was louder up close, the generator lit up the dead corn field and Meg was repelled from the now functioning thing, as she felt a sense of pride build in her system, she had done it. She had managed to get a generator working, she didn't know the rules of this place. But those other survivors had decided that fixing a generator took more priority than saving her from a meathook, then there could only be one conclusion.

"These generators power the exit door!" she shouted in a mad glee.

But then she remembered what she had seen from that hook, the second the generator had been completed that trapper had made a beeline for it. For good reason, if they made that noise when they were completed. Then the killer had a strong indicator of where they were, they knew people like herself had been working on it.

Her glee turned to horror in seconds, without thinking she ran, plants bristled past her shoulders as she put as much space between herself and the generator as possible. Eventually she slowed to a halt and ducked at the edge of the cornfield, she could see a locker nearby, but remembered Dwight's words. If the killer caught her in there, she was done for. So she held her breath and waited for the heartbeat she was expecting, the killer had to be nearby, yet the seconds turned to a full minute and Meg didn't hear a thing.

She didn't like this, not one bit.

Then she heard the bell by her ear.

Ding, Ding, Ding...

There was a whoosh, the red stain, the heartbeat, Meg felt herself scream but couldn't hear it, as the heartbeat was deafening in her ears. An instinctive reaction was to roll over on the ground as she felt something heavy swoosh over her head, she got to her unsteady feet and ran, casting a brief look behind her at the killer.

It wasn't the trapper, nor the chainsaw guy, but something with much darker skin, dressed in plain clothes, or what once been plain clothes with white bandages around his attire. His eyes shone dangerously, his face strangely calm and stripped with what looked like white paint, it was materialising from behind her, as if it had just been invisible beforehand, in it's hand it carried a long weapon that (from this distance) looked like an enlarged skeletal totem with a sharp end. Turning to the field in front of her, Meg felt her adrenaline kick in and she ran like she had never ran before.

Now she knew she was going fast, too fast almost. The crops blurred in her vision, wind slapped at her face and her pigtails flung out from behind her, yet she didn't stop running, until she heard another distant DING! and became aware of the fact she was out of the field and vastly approaching a wooden hut that looked like it had been very poorly constructed. Yet she only stopped when she was inside of the hut and she bent over double, sweat rolling from her forehead.

"I ran that far!?" she gasped in disbelief, peeking behind her to see that the corn crops were far behind and that all was silent. She couldn't hear the heartbeat at all, she knew whatever that thing was, it had gone after the other generator and the poor soul who had activated it. She doubted it was Dwight or Claudette as they would be likely to be hiding and scouting for anyone else. She knew it would be Jake, he read those books and he knew what to do.

"If he'd shared them with us, we'd know what to do as well" Meg snapped to herself, but no, here she was. In this old hut, looking up she saw she was face to face with another generator an exact clone of the last one.

"How many of you do we need to power up?" Meg asked of the non-sentient thing, as if it could give her an answer.

It didn't answer and Meg was wary to work on another one, if that thing was going to sneak up on her again. How was she meant to concentrate on the generator while she'd have to constantly turn her head to try and keep a lookout for that thing? It was said women could multitask, but Meg struggled with that concept usually, in this place it was next to impossible.

Her eyes were instead drawn to a stairwell that led downwards, curious she descended the stairs.

* * *

Creepy wasn't the word.

The whole place was red, blood stains and dried puddles were everywhere, on the floor, over the wooden walls, on the ceiling, a mist hung low on the ground with every step Meg took the colder the mist became. She felt like she was walking on ice and she had no idea where this red hue and light was coming from, it seemed to originate from nowhere, as well as the mist and the blood (as well as a few red lockers), there was a strange creaking (and if she strained her ears) she could hear whispering. Whispering she couldn't decipher, but it prickled at her ears and made her uncomfortable.

and that wasn't the worst part of it.

In the middle of the room, stood the main attraction, four hooks, all coloured blacker than the night above them. Stained with what looked like centuries of blood stains.

"It's like one for each of us" she thought to herself, as if these hooks symbolised their four headstones, on each one she could almost make out their names... Meg... Jake...Claudette... Dwight... this whole place was ominous and Meg didn't like it one bit, she wanted to leave, but a brown chest at the corner of her eye caught her attention.

She walked over to it and opened it, to see a toolbox with a green strap around it, she went to pick it up, but recoiled instantly, it was red hot to the touch.

"This is the basement you know"

Meg almost screamed, she turned around to see Jake was standing there, in the red light, with his face as calm and controlled as ever.

* * *

Meg went to open her mouth, but Jake held up his finger and "Shushed..." lightly and for good reason, because a few moments later the heartbeat was back, neither of them dared to move, as Meg held her breath. Being found in a locker was bad enough, but being found down here was likely to be ten times worse, yet the thing seemingly passed overhead, before Meg heard the bell again, there was another whooshing and instantly the heartbeat was gone.

"That was the wraith" Jake muttered "It had been following me, I managed to escape down here, but it might be back"

"Really?" Meg spat out sarcastically.

"This is a dangerous place, but good for hiding you know" Jake muttered.

"This is Meg and she's pissed you know" Meg retorted "What do you mean by everything? If you've told us earlier..."

"What's in the chest Meg?" Jake cut through her.

"A toolbox" Meg answered "But that doesn't..."

He ignored her, he strode past her, Meg's "Hey!" went ignored as Jake reached into the chest and pulled out the toolbox.

"Green, excellent" he muttered "It's rare, green is rare, brown is common, yellow is uncommon, purple is very rare and pink is ultra rare".

"The only thing that's ultra rare is the fact that toolbox hasn't burnt your fingers off" Meg informed him "When I tried to pick it up, it was like it was on fire".

"You're carrying that flashlight" Jake noted, pointing at the thing "The entity only let's you carry one thing, one healthpack, one flashlight, one map, one key or one toolbox".

"Aren't you a bundle of information?" Meg snapped, before she managed to calm herself slightly "Listen, when we get out of here. You're going to tell me, Claudette and Dwight everything and we won't care how bad it is. Leaving us in the dark was fucking dangerous, now Dwight and Claudette are out there with no idea with what's going on".

"Somebody else did a generator" Jake noted.

"That was me!" Meg emphasised "As you've pointed out Jake, I'm shrewd apparently. I pick up on things, Claudette and Dwight are different, they panic easily, they are kind and thoughtful people, but against a killer like that, they don't stand much of a chance alone".

"That's why we need to get these generators done as fast as we can" Jake said "I assumed you got that flashlight from the bloodweb?"

"The what!?" Meg spluttered.

"Whatever, I'll explain later" Jake muttered "If that journal is too be believed, we need to power up 5 generators to power the exit doors. That's if there is just four of us and the one killer, which I believe there is. The last bunch had to do 10 generators"

"No wonder Martin was the way he was" Meg muttered, "But that leaves 3, right?"

"That's right and one of them is directly above us" Jake mused "This toolbox should make quick work of it"

* * *

Meg's mind was full to the brim with questions she wanted to ask of Jake as they worked on the generator together, where was the bag of books? What was the bloodweb? That weird dream? What did the significance of the colours on the objects mean? What was the basement? Why was there a chest there and how did Jake know about it? What about that cake she offered the entity that was burnt... what was that all about? What was the wraith, what powers did it have? What was this place?

Yet she had to keep her mind on the generator, as she felt sparks fly through her fingers, whatever was in the toolbox Jake was carrying, he added springs and bits and bobs into the mechanical mess that sped up the repair process considerably in around a minute and a half the generator lit up, with 3 down and 2 to go, Meg and Jake instantly ducked for cover inside some bushes near to the wooden hut, she watched hut closely as Jake shut his toolbox from behind her, she held her breath... waiting...

She saw it materialise from thin air next to the empty doorframe of the hut, it rang it's bell as it came into view and instantly the heartbeat was back, strong in her ears. But she remained in place, hardly daring to move. Jake seemed to know what he was doing and she was following his example. Yet that didn't stop sweat rolling down her hands and forehead as she watched the wraith patrol the building, she saw how it ran, seemingly light on the ground like herself, as it circled the hut, it inspected behind nearby trees and even in lockers, eventually it rang it's bells again and vanished into the night once again. The heartbeat vanishing in the instance the wraith became invisible.

"I don't like that thing" Meg said uttering the obvious.

"We can work round it" Jake reassured her, "Now look up, see those headlights by those ruins over there?" Meg followed his gaze and made out the headlights against the backdrop of the night, she nodded to show she could see them.

"If you ever find yourself alone, look up for those" he instructed "They'll get you to a generator, you can power it and it might attract the killer, but also your friends. Powering those things is the only way to power up the exit door, so as soon as we find ourselves in a trial like this, that's what we go for".

"Okay" Meg muttered "So, should we get this next generator done then?"

He nodded, however as they made the slow and steady walk towards the generator behind the ruins of brick walls, there was another DING! and from a point from the other side of this field, a generator's headlights filled the dark night with more light.

"Dwight or Claudette's figured it out too!" Meg exclaimed.

"Keep your voice down!" Jake hissed "But they've also attracted the killer, we need to hurry up and get this last generator done, because they'll need assistance most likely".

* * *

DING!

The last generator was the loudest of them all, upon completing it Jake and Meg pulled away from the thing and instantly stuck to the brick wall of the zone, trailing along the outer regions of this "trial area" as Jake had called it, they eventually found the exit door. Jake had pulled down the lever, as the first of three red lights above the panel lit up, just as a shrill scream echoed across the field, that Meg recognised as...

"Claudette!" she shouted, without thinking she turned to Jake "Get this thing open, I'll be back with Dwight and Claudette" she muttered these words on autopilot and before Jake could protest, she was running back through the field, towards where she had heard the scream. Soon the heartbeat began to creep up in her ears once again, as she emerged on a clearing.

It wasn't pretty.

The wraith was standing next to Claudette, who had been impaled on a hook, the legs of the entity were closing in around the poor woman and she was using both of her hands to try and keep the sharp end of one of it's black talons from piercing her heart, yet even from this distance. Meg could see the sweat coating her skin and the blood that ran down her shoulder, she was struggling with this and wouldn't be able to cope for much longer.

"CLAUDETTE!" Meg screamed.

"MEG!" She yelled back in desperation, the athlete could see behind her glasses, Claudette's eyes were filled with tears, a look of pure terror and agony was plastered onto her face, the wraith spotted her as well, but didn't move an inch, it cocked it's head at her, as if it was taunting the younger woman.

"HELP ME! OH GOD, PLEASE, HELP ME!" Claudette screamed.

"I'M COMING, HANG ON!" Meg yelled, with no game plan in mind, she'd simply have to go for it and...

"Meg..."

Another familiar voice, weak and wheezy, she looked down to see Dwight was by her ankle, he was sat slumped over a wooden box, blood dribbled down his mouth and nose, his bloodless face was at contrast with his stark black hairs that were plastered over his sweat drenched scalp. His entire shoulder was drenched in blood, Meg knew he had been on the hook as well, yet he seemed to have suffered another painful wound to the stomach, which was bleeding rather heavily.

"Dwight, what happened!?" Meg inquired instantly, trying to lift the man to his feet, it was proving difficult though as he seemed like a sack of potatoes, all of his limbs had gone numb, as blood continued to pour from his body.

"Wasn't... fast... enough..." he muttered with mouthfuls of blood, his eyes dazed and confused "Me and Claudette... we tried... fixing a generator and then that thing came behind us and... it caught me... hooked me... Claudette saved me... but then... then... it got her... and it won't...it won't move... I tried rushing for her... but..." he gestured at his stomach at this point and Meg could see a nasty gash on his leg as well that prevented him from standing without limping, "I... leave me here Meg... go... go save Claudette..."

Despite wounds healing quickly in this place, it didn't happen almost instantly. She had moments here, as she held onto Dwight and then looked up at where Claudette was struggling... how she wished she'd brought Jake along now.

Because the choice was clear, she could only save one person.

Dwight couldn't get to the exit gates alone without her help, but Claudette wasn't getting off that hook by herself, not while she had to keep the entity away. But if she stood here, then the entity would kill Claudette and the wraith would come straight for Dwight and hook him up as well. The wraith was looking intently at her now, with it's glowing orange orbs of eyes, it wasn't moving, because it had a free kill here and knew full well she was trying to rush in and save Claudette.

"HELP!" Claudette screeched once again in pure terror.

There was no time, Meg felt tears fall from her own eyes, why did this choice have to fall to her?

"Move, why won't you move and come after me!?" Meg screeched at the wraith.

This time it openly acknowledged her, it shook it's head. It didn't have a mouth, or one Meg could see, but she had a feeling that if it did, it would be smiling right now.

"Bastard!" Meg wept, "Dwight... we... we can't save her... we have to go..."

"Meg... no!" Dwight exclaimed "She... she saved me! I was useless...!"

"It's you or her and I can't get to her" Meg said, already leading Dwight away from the hook and back into the cornfield.

"No" he said, tears starting to stream down his own face "Meg, try and save her, forget about me".

"I can't" Meg sobbed.

"TRY!" Dwight screamed, as both of them faced each other, Dwight's sudden fury made his face as red as the blood from his wounds, yet Meg knew this wasn't anger directed at her. It was towards himself, he hated himself in those moments, for failing Claudette when she had saved him. But Meg wept because she had failed Claudette just as much as Dwight had done, she had failed to think rationally and had charged in alone without Jake to assist her and she had chosen Dwight over Claudette, leaving the woman to die. She could have done what Dwight had said, she could have tried...

But she didn't.

"I'm sorry, Claudette!" Meg wept.

"Oh God... NO! NO! NO!" Claudette screamed, looking at their fleeting forms "DON'T LEAVE ME! PLEASE GOD, DON'T!"

"Don't... oh God, don't..." Meg sobbed harder, she didn't want to hear this, she didn't want to hear this kind woman begging for her life like this, but yet Meg was subjected to every second of it as more tears rolled down her face.

"PLEASE! HELP ME! I'M SCARED, OH GOD I'M SCARED, PLEASE!"

Meg continued to walk away, with Dwight leaning on her, while she thought to herself... "just look forward, run smart, not fast... smart not fast...

"PLEASE...!"

Smart not fast, smart not fast...

"PL... NO... NO... NO... NAAARRRGGGGHHHHHHHHH...!"

The last scream was the worst one of them all, it was something inhumane and filled with agony, pain, suffering and fear all in one, yet that scream was cut short by a sickening splat, Meg knew Claudette was dead, she turned around to see the entity lifting her into the sky, her body was limp, she appeared to have been cut open by the talons, as her own organs rolled down from her body and hit the ground.

Dwight saw this and vomited, but Meg had to drag him forward, if she didn't Claudette had died for nothing.

They were halfway through the cornfield now, Meg was wheezing openly, she could feel the heartbeat creeping up on her, the wraith was coming...

Smart not fast...

Smart not fast...

Smart not fast...

She could hear the plants rustling from behind her, the heartbeat was too loud now...

Fuck smart...

It was time to go fast.

She propelled herself and Dwight forward and as she did, (practically dragging him, as the soles of his shoes scrapped the soil below them) she saw the exit door come into view, with Jake standing next to the misty field.

"What's going on, where's Claudette...?" he began, but there was no time, because a second later the wraith burst from the field behind them, it was inches behind them now, without thinking, Meg pushed Dwight forward, so he fell onto the ground. Jake reacted quickly to pick him up and drag the injured man to safety, as he did the wraith rounded on her and raised it's weapon... she had to get past it, but she'd end up on the hook and just like Claudete, with her guts rolling from her body...

No. She couldn't die.

Without thinking (she seemed to be doing this alot today) she switched on her flashlight, the beam directly hitting the wraith in the eyes, as it seemed to grunt, it's weapon swung blindly missed her by centimeters. Using this as an advantage, she ducked through it's legs and ran to catch up with Dwight and Jake who were already in the field, she looked behind her to see the wraith was on her tail again, but stopped suddenly when it reached the field, leaving Meg to carry on running, wiping tears from her face... during the madness she had dropped her flashlight. Not that she cared, the thing had suddenly seemed to burn her hand, so she was fine to leave it... besides it had done its purpose, she had escaped alive.

Not everyone else had.

She caught up with Dwight and Jake as they continued to run, Jake managing to hold onto a now unconscious Dwight, the blood from his numerous wounds was already healing. But the mental pain would be worse no doubt.

"He tried to save her" Meg muttered, at the battered form of Dwight.

"I see" Jake muttered "Claudette had a tough time, we'll have to comfort her when we reach the campfire".

Meg made sure she had heard that right.

"Jake" she began "I know you got on with Claudette..."

"and I know what happens when someone dies, I'm not stupid" Jake said sharply "I'm sorry that happened to Claudette, but she'll be at the campfire, mark my words".

Meg didn't, she doubted it. Until they reached the campfire fifteen minutes later to find Claudette in the clothes she had been wearing when she died, there wasn't a single scratch on the poor woman, she sat curled up the campfire, like how a fetus was curled in a mother's womb. Meg felt her mouth drop open in shock, Dwight (who had now woken) dropped by her side, in similar disbelief.

"She's dead" he muttered hollowly "We saw it, we..." he paused there and grasped her shoulder, "This... this can't be real"

"It is" Jake said, cutting through him, he set the green toolbox by the campfire and picked up what looked like a machine part and placed it in the toolbox, looking around the campfire, Meg could see it was dotted with other things as well, a map, three more medkits, a box of something, the bag of books from earlier and a large collection plants and flowers, the sort of herbs and flowers Claudette would have loved...

Or would love.

"But... Dwight's right, she's dead, we saw it!" Meg insisted, her tears had dried with the blood from Dwight's wound, but the memories were still horribly fresh "How... how did this...?"

She didn't get to finish this sentence, because in those moments, Claudette gasped and then screamed, lifting herself up and batting at thin air with her hands, with her eyes widened and crazy...

"STOP! NO! NO! NO! PLEASE...!" She screeched, in the same tone she had used merely twenty minutes ago.

"CLAUDETTE!" Meg screamed, approaching the woman, who did her best (with a surprising amount of strength) to bat her off, screeching "NO! GET OFF, GET OFF, GET OFF ME! GET OFF!"

"SETTLE DOWN! IT'S ME! IT'S ME!" Meg roared, but it was no good, Claudette was in hysterics, crying, weeping and screaming, twice she managed to slice at Meg's face leaving cuts in her cheeks, yet Meg held onto her, finally Dwight limped over and shouted "CLAUDETTE IT'S US! YOU'RE OKAY, HERE, IT'S US! IT'S ME! DWIGHT! DWIGHT! AND MEG AND JAKE! WE'RE ALL HERE...!"

It took another few minutes to calm her down, eventually through Dwight's shouts and Meg's restraints, Claudette stopped struggling, through her wet eyes she made out Dwight's form and stopped for a second to mutter... "D...Dwight..."

"It's me! We're at the campfire, everything's alright" Dwight said to try and soothe her.

"But... but..." Claudette spluttered, before she clutched her stomach and screamed, she doubled over and wept "Oh God...it still hurts... it still hurts..."

"I know, I know, I know" Meg repeated like a broken alarm, she certainly didn't know, she couldn't relate to the level of pain that dying like that would bring, but she had to try and say something to help the terrified woman. She held Claudette close and muttered into her ear "It's okay, I've got you. I'm not going to leave you again, you're safe, you're safe..." she rocked her slowly, the way her mother used to rock her when she was young, this seemed to calm her down somewhat, but she still wept into Meg's chest and shook horribly. Moaning in pain and clutching her stomach, when the commotion died down, the cackle of the campfire cropped up as the main audio of the setting.

"Jesus, what the hell is going on around here!?" Dwight exclaimed at last, "This... this just can't be real... but... all of that..."

"He knows" Meg spat, pointing an accusing finger at Jake, who merely sat fiddling with his toolbox while Dwight and Meg had tried to console Claudette "He knew everything Dwight" she continued sourly "He read those books the first night here, that's why he took the shift. He knew what was in those trials, he knows everything and he didn't tell us, he wouldn't let me see them either".

"What the...?" Dwight began, before he turned to other male in the group "Jake, is that true!?"

"I didn't think we'd be sent back so soon" Jake replied "But I wanted to keep the truth from you, it's better to be ignorant".

"CLAUDETTE DIED!" Dwight roared, "YOU COULD HAVE TOLD US AND...!"

"and I was expecting this response and I apologise" Jake said calmly.

"You don't sound sorry at all" Meg snapped "What the hell could be so bad, you'd think we'd be better off not knowing, what could be worse than..." she gestured down at Claudette "That!? What could be worse than a painful death like that!?"

"Didn't you listen to a word Martin said?" Jake inquired sharply "You'll get used to the deaths eventually and death is not an escape? Do you know what that means?"

"Wait" Dwight said, calming down somewhat "Don't tell me... that... what we saw. Is just going to become routine?"

Jake didn't answer, he merely sighed and said "I guess you all want the truth then, I promised you that Meg, so I'll keep too it..."

"...but I can guarantee you aren't going to like it"


	5. The Entity's Game

"Do you want the long, or short version of it?" Jake asked.

"Give us the general outline" Meg instructed of him, he nodded and plunged right into his tale.

"We're dead".

Meg blinked, she was still holding onto Claudette who was weeping, but at those words she stopped and managed to lift her head, Meg wondered what she was going to scream, or sob, but she simply said "I know... I saw it".

"Listen, Jake I know the odds are stacked against us..." Dwight began.

"No, not like that" Jake muttered "We're dead Dwight, as in we died and this place... this realm is a form of limbo".

There was a silence at this, as Dwight blinked rapidly.

"But... but it just..." he began to panic.

"You don't have any other answer" Jake said bluntly to shut him up "You can carry on theorising if you like, but no amount of logic or science can explain this anymore. You've seen it with your own eyes, you have to accept the fact that we somehow all died in the woods, right after we lost our memories".

Dwight was speechless, Meg was stuck in deep thought as devastation, after devastation hit her, if what Jake was saying was true then... who would find her body? What would her mother do now? Who was going to look after her mother? But the most nagging question on her mind was... how? How had she died? She'd been running as normal... did she somehow trip on a loose tree root and break her neck? It wasn't possible, she knew the route off by heart... animals? People? Murder or accident... Meg's head was spinning, as it did, Dwight turned wildly to Claudette.

"Claudette, please!" he begged "You... you know..."

"I thought I knew" Claudette sobbed, "But I saw it Dwight, I saw how I died"

"The first time you are killed here, the entity restores your memory so you can remember your death" Jake explained "It's unknown why it does this, but from the accounts I read, it seems like the entity's way of claiming ownership over you and making you realise where you are and that there's no going back".

"It... it gets rid of hope or denial of the supernatural" Claudette added, her voice shaking "I... I got off the bus I was on and went on a walk in the woods like I remember...".

"You don't have to say this" Jake reminded her.

"No... I want them to know" Claudette uttered, looking up at a blank looking Meg and pale faced Dwight, "I suppose, as a death it wasn't dramatic or exciting in anyway, just a freak accident. I was studying some plants by a stream, I remember being so excited about moving to a new city, to my new job to start a new life and those plants... well those flowers by the stream were beautiful. I had to grab them, I'd plucked them and said to myself, they're going to be my lucky charm when I move, my source of comfort..."

She shuddered there.

"But as I grabbed them, I lost my footing, I fell into the stream and failed to break my fall, I hit a sharp rock head first, because it was in a stream, it was slippery and I couldn't get grip... but the last thing I remember was being in pain, it felt like something had cracked open before the world went black..." she sighed there, shaking terribly in Meg's grip.

"You want to know the worst part of it?" Claudette now sobbed, tears rolling down her face, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the surpingsly fresh stems of four of the most beautiful flowers Meg had ever seen, two were pearly white, while the other two were a plum lilac, each with black seeds poking out from their centres, as their leaves rustled in the faint wind.

"My flowers" Claudette muttered "My lucky charm when I move, my source of comfort..." she fought back more tears before she spoke on "I... when I died back there, it was all a blur. But it taunted me, that entity and gave me those flowers, the hell I saw. There was nothing but screaming and fire and..." she trailed off to a halt there, crushing the flowers in her fingers, before she buried herself in Meg's chest once again, wrapping her arms around the quieter female. Meg watched the crumpled flowers fall to a heap on the ground, but she had a feeling they'd be back, they were meant to Claudette's lucky charm in a past life.

Now they were a constant reminder of the life she'd never have.

"What is this... entity then!?" Dwight inquired.

"No one really knows" Jake muttered "It controls this place however, there's no escape. Nothing anyone can do, all the entries end with the writers even losing their sanity, giving in, or the pages just stop. But all of them had a consistent pattern, so listen closely".

They all did, even Claudette subdued her sobbing to hear what Jake had to say.

"The entity can't kill what's already dead" Jake muttered "So it has to drain us of all hope, it does this by making trials, that area with the hooks and the killers and the generators. It's the trial area, those stuck inside of it have to fix a certain number of generators to power one of the exit doors to escape to the campfire, are you with me so far?"

Meg and Dwight nodded.

"Usually there are four people in a trial, with one killer, seven generators with five that need completing and two exit doors" Jake explained "However if a team of four who have been put together manage to consistently avoid death at the entity's hands, then it will decide to make things more difficult, by placing them with another group of four. Hence everything is doubled, eight people, two killers, fourteen generators, with ten that need completing and four exit doors, if this team manages to do well against the entity, it will keep on adding until..."

"Untill?" Dwight persisted.

"More people, more chance of success if you can make it work" Jake muttered "But also more rooms for arguments and falling out's, some of the accounts I've read have gotten into groups as large as 40 people, only to have them all completely fall apart. By losing hope and becoming killers like that Gloria woman, deciding to end it all like Martin did, or simply ending up as victims. In order to become a killer, the entity demands at least two blood sacrifices..."

"The two Gloria killed" Meg muttered "I imagine that applies because if you're a group of 4, you have to least kill two and leave one survivor because..."

"...the entity likes to play with it's food" Jake concluded for her "Lone survivors are rampant in these accounts. Sole survivors of groups, if only person reaches the campfire, then they'll wake up with three new companions, if two people do, they'll find themselves two new companions and if three people escape and one decides to end it all, then they'll find a new companion after they've slept at the campfire. There never seems to be a shortage of souls stuck here, but the entity always needs four in a trial. Only on rare occasions can a group of 2 or 3 enter the trial area, but with a reduced number of generators to do. There are only one or two accounts in here that detail that".

"This is a lot to take in" Meg admitted "But the killers? What about them?"

"The killers are the entity's servants" Jake said "As you probably know by now, once the entity has successfully drained a person's hope. They either suffer in it's personal hell forever, by giving up on their lives. Or they can chose to do the entity's bidding, by killing two of their friends with the knife the entity feels they deserve. When that's done the entity will transform them into a killer and the trial area will be a pale reflection of an area significant to the killer. It could be a hospital, a neighborhood, a cave, a forest... anything" Jake listed off.

"So... how many killers and locations are there?" Meg dared to ask.

"Judging by these accounts, hundreds" Jake muttered.

Meg felt as though she was going to be sick, she knew full well why Jake wanted to keep this quiet now.

"and they all have unique abilities, right?" Meg muttered darkly.

Jake nodded.

"But some of these killers are more frequent than others" he added "The Wraith is very well known amongst the survivors here, and he is actually considered an easier killer to avoid if you have your wits about you, the two we saw in the first trial are the trapper and the hillbilly. At least I'm pretty sure they are, the descriptions matched".

"So the wraith turns invisible and can sneak up on us, the trapper puts down traps and the hillbilly has that chainsaw thing?"

"It can run very fast when it's chainsaw is active" Jake added, "It's pretty feared by people, but the worst one was this doctor I've been reading about. He can induce shocks to people. Causing uncontrolled hallucinations and screaming, giving away your position. When affected by his so called treatment, it can make it much more difficult to repair generators as well".

"What about the others!?" Dwight asked, going green at the thought of this "doctor" killer.

"There's the nurse, she can teleport through objects to get to people" Jake explained "The hag, can lay down symbols in the dirt and then a phantom copy spring up, if someone steps on these traps. If the Hag is close it can teleport to it's clone and hit anyone close by, the cannibal is another big guy with a chainsaw, the shape is a killer that doesn't look like the rest but apparently watches and stalks people before going in, the longer it stares at you the more powerful it becomes, while the huntress always wears a mask and throws hatches across the trial area to injure people".

"Who comes up with the names!?" Dwight said slightly hysterically "What, is there The Lawyer as well? The banker? The Musician?"

"They're all named like that" Jake said "Must be common knowledge, notes passed down from notes and all, some guy called Harold, has made a giant book, describing exactly 129 killers he had identified and written about them in great detail. and how frequently you're likely to encounter them, some rarely ever appear, while others are quite common. He also drew up a maps of the trial areas and where the generators and exit doors are usually located, it would explain why Martin had this on him, before he gave it to us".

"So digesting all of that" Meg said "This bloodweb thing you mentioned... the entity gives us items right?"

Jake nodded.

"Depending on what you did in the trial, or how well you did, in saving people, doing generators, outrunning killers, destroying totems and opening exit doors" Jake said "The entity will reward your group with more days around the campfire. As we didn't do a great deal in the first trial, we only had a day of peace. We may get slightly more this time around, the range can be from one day of peace, to a week, nothing less and nothing more".

"But this bloodweb..." Meg piped up.

"I'm coming to that" Jake said impatiently "The night... well hours leading up to the next trial, when everyone in the group is asleep. The dream will begin for everyone. The entity opens the bloodweb, where you can pick up objects that can help you in the trial. The longer you're in this realm and the better you do, the rarer the items appearing will be and the more expansive the bloodweb gets, you'll be able to pick up more objects in the bloodweb, if you do good in the previous trial.

"This sounds like a video game or something...!" Dwight shouted.

"It's the entity's sick game" Jake said "After the bloodweb, the entity will present you with something valuable to you, or something tempting. You can choose to offer this as a sacrifice, if you do the entity will give you an advantage in the trial. Either by placing you away from the killer when you wake up, making you harder to see for the killer, harder to track, faster on your feet, repairing generators faster... like little perks" Jake explained.

"What if we didn't burn our offerings?" Dwight said, looking over at the campfire and the box next to large stash of plants.

"Then it's more likely the killer will find you and hook you up" Jake said simply "But your offering is saved regardless and you can enjoy it for the time you're back at the campfire, however once you enter the next trial it's lost. You can ask for it back, ask for anything else, or just refuse it and be more likely to survive the trial".

"I turned down a cake" Meg confessed "It looked so tasty as well, but it seemed too much like a honeytrap"

"Mine was food too" Jake added, "But I knew it was best to turn it down".

Their eyes turned to Claudette and Dwight and then back to the plants and box at the campfire.

"I wasn't able to find much plants in the woods" Claudette muttered "So I thought I'd save a bunch of plants I knew had medicinal purposes, I think a few are edible as well" she added "But seeing as they'll be gone in a few days... it all feels pointless".

"You couldn't have known" Meg reassured her "But thank you for getting them for us, our wounds might heal here, but... they still ache and hurt like hell".

"and in this environment, being healed instantly is important" Jake added, offering Claudette a comforting smile "The medkits are there just for that, like how we can automatically repair generators, the medkits grant instant healing abilities".

"If we had one, I could have healed Dwight and..." Meg sighed there "So, Medkits and toolboxes and all that, they're part of this bloodweb?"

"That's right" Jake said "They can also give you an edge over the killer, Medkits can be used to heal yourself or others, if you're badly injured or unable to move. Toolboxes can repair generators or sabotage hooks and make them useless, Flashlights can be used to blind killers or make them drop someone, if they're carrying a companion to a hook, carrying a map can reveal to you the locations of generators or totems depending on it's rarity and keys can open the hatch early without the need to do generators. The time taken or if it will work at all, depend on the rarity of the key".

"Me and Claudette both had keys in the trial!" Dwight informed them "But they were useless, so we dropped them and..."

"Yeah, broken keys need dozens of attachments" Jake told them "Out of interest we all chose two items in the bloodweb, I chose the toolbox and the spring and chose to bring the toolbox in. Whereas you three all chose medkits, but not one of you decided you'd go into the trial with them, why?"

"I wish I did in hindsight" Meg muttered sorrowfully "But I assumed because our wounds healed here by themselves, a medkit was redundant and I wanted to know what a flashlight could do"

"Same with me, just with a key" Claudette said, as Dwight nodded and added a "Me too" to the discussion.

"Well unlike offerings items from the blood web stack up, the only way you can lose them is if you use them up during the trial or get killed and drop them. Someone else could pick it up, but that doesn't happen often" Jake explained "As I explained to Meg earlier, the rarer an item is the more effective it is and longer it can last, brown being the worst and pink being the best".

"I got a brown strapped key" Claudette muttered.

"Mine was green but still useless" Dwight added.

"So Dwight and Jake get green items and we get brown one's" Meg pointed out "The entity is sexist".

This drew a few laughs from Dwight, but the atmosphere was still sombre as Jake continued onwards.

"Add on's are also important to make objects last for longer or making them easier to use, or faster to take effect" Jake said "Like this spring, objects like this, or little parts etc... can help the toolbox last longer and operate faster, when add on's like this stack up. You can add them to the main object and play it smart" he muttered.

"Well good for you and your little spring Jake" Meg said "Now onto the next topic, the basement we came across".

"Yes" Jake muttered "That".

"The what?" Dwight inquired.

"The basement, me and Meg found it, while you and Claudette were busy elsewhere" Jake explained "I could upgrade this toolbox to the high heavens above and disable every hook in the area, but that won't matter because the entity needs to make sure people get hooked. That's what the basement is for, the four hooks in there cannot be sabotaged no matter what, or eight depending on how many people are in the trial..."

"So, it's just an area with special hooks in it?" Dwight asked.

"Oh no, it's where the entity is at it's most powerful" Jake said "If you get hooked and die in the basement, you don't return to the campfire. You'll suffer in the entity's hell for a short while before you wake up starting the next trial. With no offerings, no bloodweb, nothing. The basement will always have a chest inside which will contain an item you can find in the bloodweb and it's possible to hide down there" Jake uttered "But if you're caught down there, there's only one way up and one way down and the killer can very easily set up a tent and wait for people to come along and draw them into a trap"

"Are there any other chests around the trial area?" Meg asked.

"A few, but it's very rare to find one, or anything good in it" Jake said "Judging by the accounts, the only one containing anything of value is in the basement".

"So... back to these items" Dwight muttered "What do you mean, they can run out?"

"Once you've used them up, they'll burn your hand and you'll instantly drop them and they'll vanish" Jake explained "and as you found out earlier Meg, you can only carry one thing in a trial".

"Another topic I want to venture into" Meg said, before Dwight could harker on about items "Our... powers. Like... you with the crows, or Dwight with seeing things..."

"For every group, there has to be someone who can see the hooked person" Jake said "They're an essential part of the team and if no one on the team could see the affected survivor, then the game would be dull for the entity. Dwight, your power is common, but it's essential for us. From every trial from now on we all have to try and find you before someone gets hooked".

"What if it's _me_ getting hooked?" Dwight asked.

"Then, quite simply we're fucked" Jake said bluntly.

"Nice to know, Dwight you're the VIP" Meg said "But if Dwight gets hooked, can't he call for help or..."

"He could and we could try and find him, but screaming and calling for help is risky" Jake said "Because every account I've read come from hooked survivors, who've called for help and the killer lingers around them if they do. They know you're calling for help and know others are coming, so they'll patrol the area..."

"Like that wraith" Meg snapped, it made sense now. She had yelled for help beforehand and that trapper had come to watch her and with Claudette screaming for help the wraith had refused to move away from her.

"So... we have to stay silent on the hooks and hope Dwight isn't on it?" Meg summarised.

Jake nodded.

"You can be hooked a maximum of three times a trial" Jake muttered "But it all depends on how long you're on the hook. If no one comes to save you, the entity will come down and try and impale you and will eventually succeeded after a struggle. If you get rescued before the entity can form around you, then you've suffered your first strike. If you get hooked again, the entity will form automatically and the struggle will begin. If you get hooked a third time, then it's instant death, the entity will strike you with a force no one in these accounts has been able to hold back, does that all make sense?"

"Three strikes you're out, seems simple enough" Meg said "But I managed to escape from the hook..."

"It's rare but possible" Jake said "But you can only do that during the period of time that your first hooked and before the entity forms, it requires, strength, willpower and luck to pull yourself off. Because if you try to escape the entity will form faster, it also requires some brains, as you don't want to free yourself with a killer close by. You got very lucky in your first escape Meg".

"Why thank you" she mused, "But seriously, I've noticed something, despite being called killers, they don't seem to actually kill you..."

"Yes, they are the entity's servants from what Benedict Baker describes" Jake said "His journal is very interesting, but their main focus is to hook you and sacrifice you to the entity. But on some occasions the killer will give you a painful death at their own hand, but again, it's rare".

"So how does it happen?" Dwight asked.

"One killer will obsess over killing you" Jake said "No one knows why it works that way, but it simply does. Once you look at the killer who is your "obsession" people have described just knowing... that's the killer that for whatever reason, despises them the most and would kill them. Being killed by the actual killer earns you the same punishments as being killed in the basement would. But again it's quite rare, of the hundreds of killers only one is the obsession and they have to hook you at least once before they can kill you, bad news is though. Most obsessions tend to be more common killers we'll see"

"Oh brilliant, what fun" Meg said sarcastically.

"Also, the killers can have perks of their own and some totems can offer them increased powers" Jake said "If we happen to come across a totem with candles lit around it, it's to be destroyed immediately, those type of totems can make the killer stronger, allow them to see where we are, or even make them faster".

"This really is a sick fucking game" Meg snapped "But if the killer picks us up..."

"Yes" Jake said as if she could read her mind "You can wriggle out of their grip, if they take too long to get you to a hook".

"I think that's my ability, wriggling out of hooks or the killer's grip" Meg said.

"It might be, people have described having numerous supernatural perks against the killer, some grow stronger over time" he admitted "It all seems to vary on how well you play the entity's game. If you're consistently good at it, the killers become more focused and harder to avoid, whereas you will also get better" yet at this Jake frowned "One woman managed to avoid being killed by the entity for roughly 5 years straight, she described how she could see other hooked survivors, taking a battering from the killer without falling, see where the killer was located at certain points in the trial and instantly free herself from it's grip".

"So she was good" Dwight mused.

Jake frowned.

"Too good" he said sorrowfully "Her name was Rosie and she became a constant lone survivor, it drove her insane in the end. She couldn't keep company with anyone because they kept dying or giving up, her final entries suggested she was about to give up as well, she lasted for 22 years here" Jake finished.

"Jesus" Meg muttered in strange awe "22 years and I bet... because this is limbo, she didn't age at all, or grow hungry or thirsty".

"Good, you're picking up on things" Jake informed her "In this place our bodies don't age and we can't die of hunger, or thirst. But over a very long period of time and I'm talking weeks to years, hunger and thirst can creep in if we don't eat or drink during that time and the pain can be consistent and agonizing" Jake said "Some people's accounts, who lose all faith at the end simply give up in trying to eat or drink and the pain of it drives them too..." he sighed there "You get the drift".

"So we're in limbo" Dwight muttered, trying to make sense of it all "We survive these trials and we get rewarded with offerings, if we don't burn them" he said.

"Yes" Jake said, affirming this fact.

"So, the entity knows what tempts us and even if we die, which... I'm sorry to say this Claudette... we'll... we'll eventually get used too! I mean you heard what Martin said, you'll get used to the deaths eventually!" Dwight recalled "He smiled as he died! If we can learn this game, it will become routine"

"and die over and over again" Jake mumbled, "This is why I didn't want to share this information with you, the truth of the matter is, we're doomed. There's no escape it's just a matter of time before we all give up".

"Well..." Dwight began desperately "You will if you have that attitude, we need to keep hoping!"

"For what?" Jake muttered "We can sit here all positive now, but we're not taking weeks of this Dwight, or months. We're talking years and years, of constant, painful deaths, every death made the people writing these accounts, feel less and less hopeful. Benedict Baker summarised it as, every time he died, he lost a little part of himself. Those that keep dying in rapid succession are the one's that give in to this place first and we've already suffered one death..."

"It was unlike anything else I experienced" a shaken Claudette said, speaking up quietly as she had been silent throughout this conversation "I... I can't stop thinking about it, I can still feel the pain and the fact this is only the start of it..."

"Well we can't give in yet" Meg said, speaking up in defiance and standing with Dwight "Look, I know things are grim right now and I just can't believe any of this is happening, but... this entity can't actually kill us! Martin was right, we have to hang onto hope for as long as we can, because we can have good times come out of this as crazy as it sounds!" Meg exclaimed trying to get her point across.

"If our time is limited, fine, I'll accept that" Meg said "But I'm not giving up after a week, or a month, or even a year. I want my quality of life to be the highest it can possibly be, so I'll fight on. Even if it's pointless, because I just can't accept defeat just yet".

"You have spirit" Jake noted "and as horrible as the news is, I'll survive for as long as I have my wits about me"

Meg smiled at him, before turning to Dwight.

"Yeah, I don't like the thought of burning for eternity in the entity's hell" Dwight said "So, I'm on this survival train".

"Claudette?" Meg called.

"I... I..." Claudette was still shaken but managed to mutter "I'll try"

"Good!" Meg told her reassuringly.

"I just... I just don't understand why this entity has to play with us" Claudette moaned, "If it wanted to kill us and drag us to hell, why not just get on with it!? and I know... I've done some bad things in my life. But do I really deserve to burn in hell for no reason? Does anyone here deserve this fate!?"

"No" Jake answered for her "It's not right, but try not to think about it, it's drove others insane here".

There was another silence after this statement, Meg was forced to think about this, did they deserve to go to hell for nothing? She hadn't killed anyone in her life, sure she was off the rails in her youth and had done bad things, but didn't everyone? There was only one thing Meg had done in her life that she was truly ashamed of, to ashamed to mention to anyone else or even think about for too long, yet she had stopped doing that a while ago. She was trying to get her life back on track and now she was here? She wanted to scream about how unfair it all was, but she knew countless other people before her had probably done the same and if what Jake had said was true, than it hadn't ended well for them.

Yet thinking about everything Jake had said...

"So if we walk away from here" Meg piped up "We'll just come across more campfires set up for us?"

Jake nodded.

"I just thought of something!" Dwight exclaimed suddenly, a smile on his face "If one of us stays awake and keeps guard then..."

"It won't work" Jake said, cutting him off instantly "People have tried that countless times, when the night before the trial comes, you'll fall asleep no matter how hard you attempt to stay awake. The night after the trial, we can stay up and any night after that if it's not the night before the trial, we can stay up. But before we're thrown back in to face another killer..." he sighed there, the message was clear, as Dwight's resolve lapsed into a grieving silence.

"You mentioned a hatch" Meg muttered "I saw one during the trial, you said the key could open it..."

"If you're the last alive during a trial, then it's likely the killer will be around the exit doors" Jake explained "The hatch is the alternative escape, the entity doesn't want the game to be too easy for the killer and the hatch can create trials where one member of the team doesn't do anything. Yet when everyone else dies, they can escape unharmed".

"Then that makes people selfish" Dwight picked up on instantly "If people fall into that mindset, if they find the hatch during the trial, all they have to do is camp by it and wait for everyone else to die and..."

"That's a reason some groups fell apart" Jake said "Selfish behaviour, but the keys, when given a dozen add on's, have the ability to open the hatch earlier, so if we had a pink strapped key with a dozen add on's we could use it to find the hatch and all escape the trial".

"I imagine it's going to be a bit harder than simply making that our plan" Meg said, knowing not to expect good news from this.

"It can work" Jake muttered "But to get a full key that can operate with all the necessary add on's... it will take about a year".

"A YEAR!?" Dwight and Meg exclaimed in shocked unison.

Jake nodded.

"and even then it's difficult to find the hatch" Jake muttered "The entity will make it harder, once it knows you have the key and keys can be easily lost if dropped in a trial, hence a year's work towards gaining the necessary key becomes invalid, rare and useful objects take time to built up and can be saved here at the campfire, but also easily lost".

"High risk, high reward" Meg muttered "Low risk, low reward, that's the way this game works, right?"

"Exactly" Jake muttered.

"What about the offering and stuff?" Dwight asked "I mean if it takes time to build up rare objects and that, then I imagine..."

"I was just reading about that part, before you guys woke up" Jake informed them "and it turns out you can receive greater offerings, if you skip out on other one's. If you want a permanent offering, that will stay with you and constantly be found at the campfire, regardless of death or not, it takes around a year or two to get these offerings".

"So to get something permanent that'd you like to keep, you have to refuse other offerings for 2 to 3 years!?" Meg exclaimed, this entity really was a piece of shit.

"I'll read about more of them soon, apparently there are offerings even rarer than that, but offer even greater rewards" Jake muttered "I guess as this is no longer secret you can read the books and notes like I have. We're likely to find more dotted around the trial area, where survivors that have died for the final time have left their memos behind".

"Well, cheers for telling us" was all Meg could say after that massive information dump, "I think... I think I'll read up on the matter".

* * *

Meg was becoming invested in the adventures of Rosie, the survivor Jake had mentioned earlier who had survived in this hell for 22 years before finally giving into suicide, she had seen a grand total of 12 groups, with one managing to get over 50 people, the trials during her time in that group sounded insane, with the group finally falling apart due to a murder, she was fortunate enough to find the hatch during that trial and her group had decreased since then.

It was madness, Meg was sat by the campfire, using it's light as she flicked from page to page, the paper itself was old and musty, the ink on it was fading, some pages were dotted with dried blood, others with other blotches that were most likely tears, she was reading about Rosie's first couple of trials...

 _"...that poor woman, Anne..." Rosie recalled, "...we haven't been here long and she's already died four times, in the week of offerings I had to give up in order to obtain this diary permanently, she died twice. Now she just sits by the campfire, staring at it, haunted and shaking..._

Meg looked up from the diary, to see that Claudette was lying by the campfire, her eyes were widened and she was staring at the campfire, haunted and shaking...

 _"Me, Ben and Tony have tried to get through to her, we've tried to help her but it's like talking to a brick wall, seeing how she died beforehand has done something to her, it's like she doesn't even want to fight this anymore..."_

"Claudette, here eat some plants you did get them after all" Jake was saying, as he once again draped his green coat over her form, as he slowly managed to feed her a few plump looking berries, but Claudette didn't seem to acknowledge him, she continued to gaze into the campfire, Jake was having to look after her, it was like... she'd already given up...

 _"We've been here six weeks now and Anne's gone, we were working on a generator together, all 4 of us and that trapper was approaching and the poor woman just broke down, started screaming about how she couldn't do this anymore. A knife appeared out of nowhere, before me or Ben could stop her she'd already silt her throat and the entity appeared and dragged her up. We all managed to escape, but she's not back at the campfire._

 _I know the entity gave her that knife, it looked funny. But whatever sick game it's playing with us, it already claimed it's first victim for real this time. The mood here is sombre, Tony keeps hoping she'll come back like she always did. But this death was different, we all know she's not coming back, it's just a gut feeling..."_

Meg put the diary down, she felt sick, she had a horrible gut feeling as she looked over at Claudette who now seemed to be dozing slightly, Jake was sat by her, buried in notes about rare offerings, while Dwight was behind her looking through the diary of Benedict Baker.

Was history going to repeat itself here? It seemed likely that Claudette would be the first, but then what? Who'd be next? Could Meg survive 22 years of this hell like this Rosie had done? and now she had to absorb the horrible truth, she had no idea how Jake had found all this out and had managed to keep calm and collected throughout the whole thing, she knew now why he'd wanted to keep this all secret.

Why was she so stubborn? She could have cursed her past self...

No, they knew what to do now. The news was horrible but it had to be learned, because she'd end up dying every trial if she didn't and would be much more likely to give up if constantly put through the trauma Claudette had just experienced.

"Still..." she thought to herself, as she laid down on the ground, as she did Jake said he needed a walk and soon disappeared into the misty field. Meg knew he needed some time alone, after everything he had been through and she wasn't going to pry or analyse this decision like she would have done beforehand.

Hell, she could have used some comfort at this time, whether in solitude or with someone and staring into the cackling fire wasn't helping.

* * *

Eventually (after around another 10 minutes of Jake's absence and the flicking of pages behind her) there was a sharp snap of a book closing followed by a yawn, as Dwight muttered "Meg, you awake?"

"How'd you expect me to sleep after hearing and then reading all that?" she asked, not facing him but continuing to look at the fires in front of her, they were warming her face but she hardly cared, it wasn't like she could really feel the warmth.

"It's crazy" Dwight muttered "I guess, we're really doomed then, aren't we? We won't get to go on that date and I was looking forward to that as well..."

"Dwight" Meg said suddenly cutting through his babble "Come lie here next to me, we can cuddle if you like"

She couldn't see it, but she could envision it in the sudden silence that overcome the nerdy man and the way she imagined his mouth to have fallen wide open. She felt a smile worm itself onto her face, in spite of everything it seemed playing with him could keep her spirits up.

"Meg... I..." Dwight spluttered.

"A cuddle, nothing more, hell I could use the comfort" Meg muttered.

She heard the rustling of her clothes behind her and soon felt Dwight slide behind her as he laid on the ground, he wrapped one arm around her waist and tried to place the other under her head, however after five gruelling minutes of untangling Meg's loose hairs that had been caught in his watch, he finally got his arm through. Leaving Meg staring at the black watch around Dwight's wrist (which he overhead him telling Claudette before the trial had broken).

"Why are you still wearing that?" she asked.

"Force of habit" Dwight muttered, as he blew away some of Meg's hairs "Jesus Meg, how much hair do you have? I'm choking on the stuff here..."

"Real smooth thing to say Dwight" Meg warned.

"Give me a break, you know I'm not used too this" Dwight retorted, before they settled slightly, feeling Dwight next to her and his hot breath on her neck, gave her the sort of warmth and comfort the campfire could not.

"Meg, just a head's up" Dwight said "If we stay like this, with your ass on my nether regions, I'm going to end up being a literal pain in the backside..."

"A boner's the very least thing I'm concerned about right now" Meg told him bluntly.

"What about if Jake sees us?"

"So what, are you married to him!?" Meg snapped.

"No, but it might... well you know..."

"I think he'd understand, I'll set the record straight and tell him it's not what he thinks it is" Meg said to reassure the more nervous man "But what do you honestly think about all this Dwight?".

"I don't know" Dwight muttered "It's so much to take in, to accept were dead and were doomed... maybe it just hasn't sunk in yet".

"Yeah" Meg said.

"and all of those killers as well, I mean... we're screwed and that doctor sounds like the most terrifying to me" Dwight mumbled.

"The trapper seems like the most annoying to me, so far at least" Meg replied.

"Yeah, the trapper was... I should know after stepping in one of those bear traps" Dwight said with a light smile, yet wincing slightly at the painful memory.

"Yeah..." Meg muttered hollowly.

Without another word she turned around and buried her face in Dwight's chest, she wanted to cry but the tears wouldn't come. The fact they were doomed, the news was overwhelming for her, Dwight seemed to get the message as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer to him, it was suffocating for Meg and someone should have given Dwight the memo that choking and hugging were different things. But she didn't care in those moments, breathlessly she pulled away from his chest and looked up at him, he'd taken his glasses off again and Meg didn't know what to say, but a very sudden question weighed on her mind.

"Dwight I never asked" Meg said "Claudette's offering was the plants, but what was your's?"

"Oh" Dwight muttered, suddenly awkward and going red, "Yeah erm...I thought it was a dream and all and...it's kind of embarrassing really..."

He pulled something from his back trouser pocket, that he must have taken from the box earlier, Meg could briefly see it was some sort of book, but rather thin and flexible, she knew instantly what this was.

"Dwight it's fine" Meg reassured him "You're a man, you thought it was a dream, there's nothing wrong with porno mags".

"What!?" Dwight inquired.

"Dwight don't play dumb I know it's a porno mag, Is it playboy by any chance?" Meg asked.

Dwight gave her a quizzical look, before the book unfurled and it was a magazine, just not the one Meg was expecting at all. She looked down at the magazine and then up at Dwight was giving her an earnest, bright smile, his face as red as the blood that ran through his body.

"The complete collection of the original spider man comics!" he squeaked, the inner fanboy coming to the fore, "I know it's embarrassing, but my God, I can't wait to re-read through these. Maybe it will help Claudette as well, Issue 23 is one my favourites!"

Meg couldn't help it, now she was crying and laughing in equal measures as she pressed herself up to Dwight's chest once again.

"Meg... are you okay?" Dwight muttered.

Meg didn't respond, she merely laughed and cried herself into a delirious slumber, her last thoughts before she dropped of was maybe... despite her worries and the truth being revealed to them all.

That with a group like this, they were going to help each other.

and they were going to go far.

If 22 years was the finishing line in this place, then Meg was ready to run, past the finishing line, ready to set a new record.


	6. Science Girl

**_"Nettle leaves are usually good for treating inflamed injures..."_** _Claudette typed away wildly, her fingers patting away at the keyboard_ **_"...of course there are other herbal remedies that can reduce the effects of inflamed injuries, I've left a link below that you can look at, hope this helps! :)_**

 ** _Science Girl._**

 _"CLAUDETTE!" Her mother called from some point below her, "A LETTER'S ARRIVED, AND IT'S GOOD NEWS!"_

 _"Good news" she muttered in quiet disbelief, had her application for a botanist been accepted!? It couldn't have been, she was so certain she'd messed up her application letter and later interview, but from her mother's tone it seemed like she actually had done it._

 _"I'LL BE DOWN IN A MINUTE!" Claudette exclaimed, trying to hide her joy, as she switched off her laptop and smiled to herself._

 _This was going to be good news, she could feel it, she knew it._

 _She couldn't wait to see what was going to happen next in her life._

* * *

"...Blueberries..."

"...cherries..."

"Blueberries Meg, these blueberries are the nicer choice..." came a voice from somewhere far away.

"Cherries, always prefered cherries and I thought you would as well Dwight, considering how many you've popped..."

"Oh ha, ha..." came a sarsatic grumble.

Claudette was aware of the fact she was drifting back into a conscious state, yet she didn't dare open her eyes, because she'd knew she'd see Dwight and Meg fighting over something trivial. She could smell and almost see the blackened and smoking campfire, she knew if she looked up into the sky, she'd see nothing but the dreaded night sky, the mist she could already feel rolling across her exposed skin, as well as the blades of glass that sprouted up around her.

After everything Jake had told her yesterday... why didn't she care?

She should have done, it was a lot to take in, but Claudette just sat there like a sponge, soaking up all the information thrown in her direction, all the clever theories she had come up with... all null and void. All the hopes she had for her family finding her, null and void. Her previous sense of optimism and hope was gone, but it wasn't Jake's words that had put her into this state.

It was her own death.

She felt the pain, every ounce of it and it had driven her insane in those moments, with no sense of anything but pure fear as those talons dug into her body and caused her to squeal in agony, until she felt her own organs slide out of her body as the entity cut her open, the last thing she remembered was twitching feebly, blood blocking her throat so she couldn't breathe nor scream any longer as she was lifted into blackness. Visions of her original death replayed in her mind, as she remembered the sickening splat of her skull against the sharp rock...

Then, the real hell began.

The brief flashes of hell, the entity's talons were everywhere, as thousands upon thousands of people were constantly impaled by it's talons, screaming every second as they did. She couldn't even recognise them as people, as they were all on fire, shapeless black moulds that faintly resembled human beings, screeching forevermore, begging for mercy and for help that the entity wouldn't grant them. She even saw him, or what was left of him. Martin, she recognised the african man's scream, by some means (probably the entity's doing) her eyes were drawn to him, as he burnt and as around 10 of the entity's sharp claws impaled him and continued to jab at him.

"HAAAAALLLLL...ARRRGGGHHH... HALLLLL... ARGGGGHHHHHH...!" was the constant bellow thrown in her direction.

He was attempting to claw out his eyes, to twitch everywhere or to do anything to avoid such pain, but the entity wouldn't grant him such mercy.

 **"You'll suffer the same fate, when your time comes"** a cold, high pitched voice had said, as talons closed in around her, ready to strike...

That's when she had screamed and awoken, batting off the talons she could feel closing in around her, it took her awhile to calm down to realise that it was simply Meg who was trying to hold her with assistance from Dwight...

Jake didn't really need to tell Claudette anything, that hell had broken her more than his news ever could.

They were fucked, that's all there was too it.

"...seriously these are delicious..." Meg was saying, Claudette could hear her munching away at the fruit she had obtained, it made Claudette very angry all of a sudden. These two were sat here joking and she had been killed, while they squandered her supplies, that she had died to get. Well, part of the reason they had died, was because herself and Dwight hadn't burnt their offerings, making them more likely to be sacrificed...

Claudette was never one to think badly about people, but hadn't she done all the work? She was the one who had encouraged Dwight to work on the generator which aided in their escape and she had saved in and in return? The idiot had gotten himself caught and then got himself injured and then Meg... Meg! That woman had abandoned her, because she wanted to save her precious Dwight and then had the gall to try and comfort her afterwards!? and Jake... where was he during this whole ordeal? He could have helped Meg, or pulled her off the hook while the wraith was distracted with Meg and Dwight...

"No, don't think like that" Claudette told herself "Dwight was frightened and injured, there's nothing he could have done. Meg would have injured herself and possibly got killed as well if she had tried to save me, because that Wraith wasn't moving and Jake was probably opening the exit doors...

"...ummm..." Dwight was humming, clearly enjoying the flavour of the fruits he was eating.

Claudette was getting irked again, she was meant to be nice and quiet, but she always had been. She'd always been the timid pushover, but here after going through death itself, what was there too fear anymore?

What if... what if she could avoid the real nightmare, that real hell... the image of Martin that burnt itself into her troubled dreams, the entity had said those words loud and clear...

"You'll suffer the same fate, when your time comes"

No. Anything but that, anything but Martin's fate and countless others who had suffered here who had decided to end it all rather than kill their friends.

"Claudette no, you're not thinking straight, you've been the only one to experience that hell as of yet" the rationale humane side of her argued, "When the others do as well, they're not all going to go psycho, people have survived here for years, don't fall in the first few days because you had one bad trial..."

Claudette wanted to believe that, but she was still irritated, she was still angry at them, as stupid, silly and irrational as it was.

But despite Dwight and Meg being pet peeves for her she found herself angeriest of all at Jake.

He had kept this all from them, despite his intentions being good, he had been distant from the group, but Claudette felt safest around him, that's why his betrayal of sorts had hit her the hardest. Why was him so damn stubborn to open up too? She fashioned herself caring and empathetic, whereas she had encountered men in her life like Jake Park, gruff and hard to open up too people, but something about the way he went about it bothered Claudette to a great deal. His calmness had been fine at first, comforting even. But after learning everything and now in the aftermath, he was too calm and too detached, simply throwing a jacket over her didn't count as a form of caring and looking out for everyone.

Merely a day ago, she had been arguing the complete opposite that Jake Park was caring man looking out for them all.

Had death really changed her that much? and turned her into that much of a cynic?

"What's happening to me?" Claudette asked of herself, struggling not to cry, while also wishing she could simply drown out the happy little chirps of Meg and Dwight... they didn't know. But she did, she didn't just hear the news, she had lived it.

She continued to feign sleep for as long as she could, because unlike how she had felt before...

She didn't want to know what was going to happen next in her life.

* * *

Dwight had gone for a toilet break, as (despite the body not working naturally in this realm) it seemed like eating and drinking the juices from the fruits (which was a massive welcome relief for Meg and Dwight alike) had stirred their bladders into life once again. While Meg took a fresh gulp of cold air feeling refreshed and already having a good idea what her next offering was going to be, Jake had managed to get Claudette up, who still seemed out of it. As he did he approached where Meg was doing a morning (or in this case) night stretch.

"I saw you cosying up to Dwight last night" he said immediately.

"To set the record straight, nothing happened between us" Meg responded.

"I'm sure you were setting something else of Dwight's straight"

"Woah, Jake since when did you develop a sharp wit?"

"Since trying to get through to Claudette" Jake replied, as he cast a glance over her "I have a feeling this death has affected her deeply, try and get Dwight to talk to her, I saw those comics he brought. I know both of them like that series, maybe it will lift her spirits".

"Poor choice of words there Jake" Meg admitted.

"Make her feel better then, If you'd prefer" Jake muttered.

"Yeah anything involving the word lift is going to trigger a PTSD flashback for sure" Meg said "Let's just try and get her back up on her feet for the moment and let her know that we're all here for her, it's all we can do at the moment, we didn't see what she did".

"Indeed" Jake said "So... did you and Dwight read up on some of the notes then?"

"Yeah,they were really fucking creepy" Meg informed him.

"Did you really just do that, read notes all night?" Jake boldly ventured "Because, if something's happening between you two. It would be nice to know, not because I'm nosy or anything, but because it could change the group dynamic and I don't want either of you making suicide runs if the other should get hooked".

"Well that's it, you've caught us red handed" Meg said "Me and Dwight were simply waiting for you and Claudette to fall asleep, then we had wild, hardcore sex right there by the campfire. We practised a new sex move, we liked to call the trapper, in homage to our favourite killer and believe me Jake, I'll spare you all the grisly details, but let's just say Dwight won't be comfortable sitting down for a while, hell we were talking about our _trapper_ all night".

"You expect me to believe any of that?" Jake asked with a straight face.

"Oh absolutely" Meg replied with a smile, as Dwight approached them (as clueless as could be) "Isn't that right Dwight? I've told Jake now to clear it all up, he understands completely".

"Really, oh thank God" Dwight muttered "I was getting worried you'd get the wrong impression Jake..."

"We were discussing the trapper last night, weren't we Dwight?"

"Oh yeah, course we were" Dwight said with some conviction.

Jake eyes widened.

"Really?" he asked in disbelief, looking at Dwight and then back at Meg.

"Yeah really, is that a problem dude?" Dwight muttered.

"At a time like this!?" Jake inquired, "Don't you and Meg have better things to be doing?"

"Well after everything you told us last night, why the hell not!?" Dwight said, raising his voice slightly and getting on the defensive "We have our own minds Jake..."

"But... but..." Jake sighed "It's only been a few days, how can you trust each other that much to do that!?"

"Meg's been great from the start!" Dwight added "I share things with her, what's the big idea, you're blowing this way out of proportion!"

"Me!?" Jake said in disbelief "I'm not the one whose been... whose been talking about trappers and all that"

"Which is a perfectly normal thing to do considering the circumstances!" Dwight exclaimed, trying to make his point very clear "You should try sharing a little more Jake, maybe you could try some of that with Claudette"

"NO!" Jake roared, getting red faced now "What are you trying to turn this group into Dwight!?"

"A group that can function and produce results!" Dwight argued back "Honestly we have one little discussion and you're acting like this..."

Meg couldn't do it anymore, she couldn't stiffle her laughter anymore or she felt like she going to crack a rib, she didn't think her brilliant little joke would lead to this mass understanding but it had done and when she broke her first fit of laughter, she couldn't stop, she was soon on the ground, red faced and hammering her fist into the earth. Barely able to breathe in mirth, as Dwight asked her if she was alright, of course it didn't take Dwight or Jake long to figure out the little misunderstanding once she had started laughing and even if she spent the next ten minutes being chased around the campfire, being repeatedly whacked with the sharp end of a rolled up spiderman comic, from a red faced Dwight. It didn't stop her from laughing or having a damn blast of a time, Jake was shaking his head at the whole scenario, smiling nevertheless.

Yet as they packed their bags and prepared to leave the campfire, (Meg still nursing hiccups) she became aware of the sad fact the merry atmosphere hadn't seemed to reach Claudette who still seemed as spaced out as ever.

Meg sighed.

This was going to be harder work than she originally thought.

* * *

While Dwight was busy trying to converse with Jake, Meg saw this as an ample opportunity to catch up with Claudette, while Jake and Dwight walked on ahead, Meg slowly approached the other woman, who still seemed lost with her thoughts and muttered a shy "Hey Claudette".

She turned to face the ginger woman and mumbled a sour "Hi" back.

"Listen" Meg said diving right into the topic she wanted to talk about (she knew small talk wasn't going to work here) "About what happened back there, that bastard Wraith wasn't moving and Dwight was injured and not going anywhere on his own. I could only save one of you and Dwight seemed like the more practical option. I didn't want to leave you, honestly I didn't, seeing you die was... was awful".

"I know" Claudette mumbled "It was horrible to feel... and what I screamed to you... don't feel bad about it Meg. I know that you could only save Dwight in those moments... I don't blame you".

"Well I knew I should have done more" Meg informed her "If I hadn't charged off to try and save you and Dwight, or had actually discussed it with Jake first, we might have baited the killer away from you and tried to rescue you and maybe succeeded, but we didn't" Meg said sourly "and It's fine to blame us Claudette I wouldn't blame you, whatever you saw when you died... it must have scarred you".

"Yeah it was... like you said, awful" Claudette recalled.

"Want to talk about it?" Meg said kindly.

"Not really" Claudette muttered honestly "Besides, I don't... I don't remember all that much from it. All I knew is that it was horrid, it haunted me... every time I close my eyes or stop to catch breath, or just at any point I keep thinking about it, about the entity and the fires..." she shuddered there, unable to continue, as Meg placed a comforting arm around the elder woman.

"I can't take that away from you, you'll have to live with that, as we all will eventually" she muttered "But, we're here for each other, we're a team remember? and we're looking out for each other, especially us women. We've got those two useless men to lug around with us, someone needs to clean up after them"

Claudette felt herself smile.

"Yeah, I guess we do" she mused, "But... please Meg. If you can next trial, just... don't let me get hooked again. I know it sounds selfish, but I can't go through all of that again, I just can't. Not now, maybe in the future, but not again, not so soon".

"It's alright, I've got your back" Meg muttered "I can't say you won't ever get hooked again, but me, Jake and Dwight we'll keep you safe for the next couple of trials, no way we're losing our medic this early on. You're likely to be the most important member of this team and I mean that. Sure Dwight has his ability to see things and Jake calms the wildlife and I'm apparently a pro at escaping the hooks and we heal up anyway after a while. But if you were there, I know you could have fixed Dwight up in an instant and that's what we need during the trials".

"Well... thanks" Claudette said warmly and she meant it "I erm...I never considered myself to be that good of a medic really".

"Well you are now" Meg replied.

 _"She didn't even thank you for the berries that **she** stole from your offering and then **ate** without asking for your permission, this is all a scam, a false act of friendship to protect herself in the future, because she knows what you're capable of" this was the harsh voice in her head speaking, but the logical one, the one she had once gone under..._

 _Science Girl_

But she had to drown out those horrid thoughts, this wasn't as black and white as a timid woman peering out at the scary world, through some internet forum. Meg seemed to generally care for her and the others and all of her life Claudette had friends who had came and went, but none of them stayed, no one had really befriended the introverted science girl, maybe that's all she had wanted... what she was really looking for.

A true friend.

She looked down at the flowers in her hand once again, four of them, including herself, they made quite the pretty bunch.

Maybe, that was like herself and this group, a well fitted, great looking group of 4, who'd shine bright like these flowers amidst the despair of this realm.

 _"It's a curse you bleeding idiot!" Science girl screamed at her "These flowers represent what you could have had, what you've got is no good. Meg's a slut, Dwight's a useless idiot, but Jake's the worst of them all, a condescending, arrogant, hypocrite, who pretends to look out for everyone. But he won't open up to you, or anyone else for that matter, you watch him, you watch him closely, you'll see his true colours come out before long..."_

"Shut up!" she thought to herself, this science girl was driving her crazy.

Quite literally, as she (despite Meg's comforting words) kept thinking back to the hell she had seen and not told Meg fully about, could she really trust the word of a woman she had known for a few days to keep her safe from getting killed again?

The logical answer was no, but a small part of her still believed the answers was a defiant yes.

* * *

"...The trapper though?"

"You fell for that just as much as I did" Dwight huffed, "I'm not the only idiot in this group, we have to band together next time dude, as men we are backbone and the strength of this group! We are justice! We are the protectors! We...!"

"Did you get that from your comic books?"

"So what if I did?" Dwight retorted, crossing his arms over his chest.

Jake had to smile again, these guys really weren't so bad after all, but he couldn't find it in him to say anymore, not when... he sighed there and continued to walk forwards, Dwight trying to keep up with him.

"So I know you were a lumberjack and all" Dwight muttered "But did you ever, like... read comics or anything like that...?"

"Not really" Jake mumbled.

"No childhood hero or anything?"

"No" Jake muttered blankly "My childhood was mostly studying or exercising or whatever else my fath... parents wanted" he admitted "I had a good time, just... we never bothered much with popular culture in our household".

"Well it's your loss then" Dwight said "Because these comics are some of the best out there"

"Are they... well known?" Jake said, taking a risky stab at friendship here.

"Are they well known!?" Dwight repeated near hysterically "Are they well known!? Have you literally been living under a rock your whole life Jake, how can you not know Spiderman!?"

"Well... like I said... not big on stuff like that..." Jake mumbled, turning red, as Dwight scurried around him like an angry inspector of some sorts.

"Please tell me you know the X-Men!"

"X-who?"

"Captain America!?"

"America... what?"

"Ooh... what about films! Star Wars! There we go, Star- freaking- Wars, you've had to heard of Star Wars, right!?"

"Yeah" Jake said, as Dwight smiled in relief.

"Finally, so which film is your favourite?"

"I've heard of it, but I've never watched the films"

Dwight made a sound like a banshee being tortured, which caused Meg and Claudette to look up in some alarm, to see Dwight was rubbing his face in a deranged way, breathing deeply and pointing an accusing finger at Jake, as if he had committed some massive crime that had left Dwight repulsed by him.

"You're... oh my God... I will burn a week's worth's of offerings, to get myself a functioning cinema so you can sit down and watch those films, you haven't lived until you've seen them!"

"Well considering we're dead..."

"You get the point!" Dwight exclaimed, however the situation was now dying down with them, Meg and Claudette went back to their own business as Dwight cast a look behind him, if he couldn't get Jake to open up via nerdy subculture, then there was one subject that could unite every man (or most men) regardless of whatever world or realm they found themselves in.

"So... films and that aside, what do you make of the girls here?"

"Oh... they're alright" Jake muttered, not getting the hint at all.

"Like as in... fine and all. Because I've gotta admit, Meg looks pretty fine right now..."

"Yeah that top suits her" Jake said.

Dwight wanted to slap himself, this guy was useless. He thought he was bad with girls, but Jake just seemed completely disinterested or naive to the topic, he couldn't really think of anything else to talk about with Jake. Now that he'd gone through his popular culture topics and girls.

"God, I'm shallow" Dwight thought to himself, if those were the only two topics he could use for conversation (three if they counted everything going on here, but that was an overdone conversation, and speaking about girls that way wasn't something Dwight was used too) so he mostly had his popular culture and as it seemed like a wasted effort of Jake, he decided to put his way with limited words towards another member of the group, one who needed it.

"I'm going to go try and cheer up Claudette then" Dwight said "You keep on... erm... leading"

Jake nodded to show he acknowledged this.

* * *

"See, this is the issue where Gwen dies!" Dwight was raving to a half listening Claudette who was blankly staring at the bold colours in front of her, nothing seemed to interest her, she'd only smiled and nodded faintly at Dwight's wild recollections and walkthrough of the comic series, now the issue of Gwen's death had come and he was beside himself, usually Claudette would have been too as she was also a fan of this series, but she only looked at Gwen's illustrated corpse, feeling about as dead as the woman in the comic was.

"You know, you've gotta admit the entity is almost like the green goblin" Dwight said, when Claudette failed to reply to him "The goblin likes to torment spiderman, but not outright kill him, that's what the entity is doing to us, torturing us, it's kinda sick when you think about it".

"I know" Claudette replied solemnly.

 _"Of course you know you stupid fuck"_

"Listen, about what happened back there..." Dwight began.

 _"Oh God here we go again, trying to rid themselves of the guilt, it's pathetic"_

"Like I told Meg, it wasn't your fault, her's or yours" Claudette reassured him "I'm just... out of it right now if I'm being honest".

 _"No you're not, you blame them, it's was their fault, no matter how much you try and deny it"_

"Well you know we are here for you" Dwight said to her, as a shout from Jake ahead singalled that they'd found another campfire, "Well, looks like we've been walking for a day, weird how times flies, huh?"

 _"Yeah feels like much longer, listening to you talk and talk and talk..."_

"In this place, yeah" Claudette muttered "I just hope we don't go back into the trial area tomorrow..."

 _"Yes you do, you know what you're planning"_

"Me too" Dwight said nodding in agreement.

"Anyway best help Jake and Meg set up the campfire" Claudette said sweetly.

 _"In other words, fuck off Dwight"_

"I don't want to leave you alone, not after what happened to you" Dwight muttered.

"I'm not okay, if I'm being honest" Claudette mumbled "I appreciate what you're all trying to do for me, but I can't feel better instantly, but if you can leave those comics with me Dwight, I'd like to read through them by myself, hell we might as well use them for something".

 _"Part of the reason you died, is because he got those stupid comics"_

"Oh okay, just... hang in there, okay?"

"Okay" Claudette said smiling back at him.

 _"Useless, fucking idiot"_ Science girl snapped.

* * *

"How is she then?" Meg asked, as Dwight extended his hands, the warmth of the campfire was a welcome relief in this place, as the pair of them chewed away on the last of Claudette's plant foods, Jake was currently reading through a thick volume of notes, according to him they were on the advanced offerings you could receive from this place. He was sat quite a distance from the campfire and despite Dwight's instance that he come closer, he had refused stating he was fine where he was.

Claudette was in a similar mindset, she was sat a distance from the campfire, blindly reading through the many issues of spiderman, using the distant orange hue of the campfire's light to read the dialogue, looking over at her Dwight and Meg both knew she was struggling but there was nothing else they could do to help at the time being.

"Still suffering" Dwight eventually said, replying to Meg's question "It will take a while for her to be back to normal, but then again I think she's tougher than she looks, she'll get through this".

"I hope so" Meg mumbled, "I was reading a diary yesterday, the woman in it had a group just like our's when she started here. One of the other women in her group died during an early trial and she was never the same afterward, then about six weeks in she... she did what Martin did".

"Jesus" Dwight muttered.

"Dwight, if it happens to Claudette..."

"It won't!" Dwight argued instantly.

"We have to accept it might" Meg cut through him "Jake's still a bit of a wildcard at the moment" she lowered her voice as she turned to where Jake was absorbed in the notes and of too much of a distance to overhear them "...he seems alright, but he hasn't given much of an indicator of how he feels about all of this. He's taking it too well, I get he's a calm and reliable dude but..."

"I know, he should be freaked out just a little, but he isn't" Dwight muttered back "Maybe he's just one of those people that doesn't show his emotions to others, at least I hope that's the case".

"He does distance himself and he went on that walk yesterday after he told us" Meg said "Looking at him now... I might sound crazy here, but maybe he's in denial. Trying to process this logically, looking for some sort of solution or something, too me right now, _it looks like he's after an answer of some sorts..."_

"That would drive me crazy, I just try not too think about it" Dwight informed her "Easier said then done however".

"Yeah" Meg said agreeing with him "Point is Dwight, if Claudette and Jake don't make it for whatever reasons, you're honestly in this for the long haul, right?"

"Yeah" Dwight echoed "We've barely been here a week yet and only survived two trials, I'm not going anywhere, promise you that, if you promise me the same thing".

"A done deal" Meg said, shaking his outstretched hand, "So, guess I'm with you, to end of the line?"

"To the end of the line" Dwight mused, before his eyes widened "Wait, was that a Captain America reference right there?"

"You just repeated what I said, again" Meg mused, a playful smile lighting her face, before she spoke up again "and so what if it was? The Winter soldier was one of Marvel's best movies"

"Repeating you again, but hell I don't care, because Winter Soldier is in my top 5 as well!" Dwight exclaimed.

"Great to know, but I only watched for Chris Evans"

"I doubt that" Dwight muttered, seeing right through her "I bet I can make a geek out of you yet".

"If I can make an athlete out of you, then it's another done deal" Meg replied.

"You really like challenging yourself, don't you?" Dwight inquired.

"Likewise to you" Meg said in response.

The pair laughed and joked for a little while longer, before they quieted down, Meg looked over at where Jake and Claudette were still unmoving, buried in their notes, was it already over for them? If they couldn't laugh and joke anymore, like herself and Dwight were doing then how long could they hold onto hope. Had the news of what limbo they were in, broken Jake already? Despite his calm exterior? and as for Claudette, death had certainly changed her, Meg couldn't help but wonder, when she eventually got killed by the entity on one of those dreaded hooks, what would she see? A dull freak accident, like Claudette's? Or something more sinister? She lived in a nice town, so she doubted the latter.

Yet you could never be sure.

"You know, I hope we're still the same after our deaths" Meg piped up, "I'm kinda curious to know how I died, I'm betting it was probably just a freak accident, but it could have been anything, sudden aneurysm, heart attack, cracked skull, tree falling on me, something worse, hell what do you think finished you off Dwight?"

"Alcohol poisoning most likely" Dwight answered "I was never good with my booze intake anyway, so I'm betting I passed out and choked on my own sick or something like that"

The two of them sat in a thoughtful silence after that, looking up at the black sky, thinking of the relatives they had left behind, the friends, locations, experiences... when it was finally time to sleep, Meg felt herself roll up next to Dwight again, she had a gut feeling when she woke again she'd see another hook in her vision, with this foreboding in mind, she mumbled to him...

"End of the line?"

"End of the line" he promised.

* * *

Dwight and Meg had drifted into a peaceful slumber, while Claudette had tried too fight it, she had tried to fight it for so long, it was as if she could feel the entity's claws themselves trying to pry her eyes shut. She rubbed her eyes, ran on the spot and tried everything to stay awake, eventually and finally, Jake began to snore very softly, instantly, Claudette sprang over to the bag of books and began to frantically read through as many notes as her eyes could cover.

 _"Find it, find it, you need to know!" Science girl was screaming at her, "You need to know what's it's like, others have thought about it as well, they'll know what it entails..."_

"I don't want to do this..." Claudette mumbled, horrified with herself.

But what was even more horrifying was seeing Martin burn, seeing all those souls burning in a mindless cruelty of hell...

Claudette wasn't an evil person, she was a frightened one.

and fear had let the Science girl come to the fore.

 _"Nothing, nothing and fucking nothing!" Science girl had snarled._

Somebody had to have thought about it, or been here enough years to know what happened after you... after you did the deed. Yet Claudette couldn't find a single note on it, they couldn't all mysteriously be absent, yet she felt herself fall onto the grass now, unable to move, fatigue overcoming her, as the entity's hold grew tighter around her, if she listened closely she could almost hear it whispering too her, a comforting lullaby of sorts...

Like it knew.

 _"Of course it knows!"_ Sciene girl snapped, at her, as Claudette felt herself drift off into blackness.

* * *

 _Her mother and father were excited downstairs, Claudette was about to rush on down, when a beeping came from her computer, clicking off her forum, she saw one of her favourite Youtube channels had uploaded a new video. She quickly clicked on it and sat through a 3 minute video of one of her favourite bloggers, complaining about another Youtuber who had thought she was entitled to everything, Claudette knew this channel well, some stuck up heiress who'd got her followers through a few saucy pictures online, a complete and utter bitch that Claudette couldn't stand._

 _"CLAUDETTE, COME ON DOWN!" Her mother called for her again._

 _"IN A SECOND!" Claudette shouted back._

 _She hurriedly saw the heiress had uploaded a new video, the one her blogger had been complaining about, she watched through portions of the video and was disgusted by the way the heiress and her stupid friends had pranked, abused and made life difficult for hotel staff at where she was staying. It reminded her of people she despised, people that looked down on her..._

 _She found the comment box._

 ** _"People like you are disgusting for the way you treated the hotel staff, shame on you, you know the world would be much better off without people like you, fucking bitch"-_**

 ** _Science girl_**

Science girl could be nice.

But this wasn't the first time the malicious side of her had come to the fore.

and as Claudette drifted off to sleep, she knew one thing...

It wouldn't be the last time science girl's dark side would show itself.


End file.
